Nadal will not play Rome

Rafael Nadal will miss this year’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. The Spaniard took to social media on Friday to announce the news.

“I am very sorry to announce that I will not be able to be in Rome,” he wrote on Twitter in his native Spanish. “You all know how much it hurts me to miss another one of the tournaments that have marked my professional and personal career for all the love and support of the Italians.”

Improvements are being made, but they take time

Nadal has been off the court for nearly five months after injuring his hip in a second-round loss to Mackenzie McDonald at the Australian Open. The injury is a grade 2 left hip flexor injury, which was originally supposed to rule him out for 6-8 weeks.

He has not played since mid-January and has lost seven of his last nine matches, dating back to his loss to Frances Tiafoe in the round of 16 the 2022 US Open.

The Spaniard says that he has made some strides in terms of his rehab in recent days, but is still not ready to tackle the challenge of competitive match play.

“Despite having noticed an improvement in recent days, there have been many months without having been able to train at a high level and the readaptation process [takes time] and I have no choice but to accept them and continue working,” he wrote.

A pesar de haber notado una mejoría estos últimos días, son muchos meses sin haber podido entrenar a un nivel alto y el proceso de readaptación tiene sus tiempos y no me queda más remedio que aceptarlos y seguir trabajando.
Un abrazo a todos. pic.twitter.com/DLkrooTBK4

— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) May 5, 2023

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