Nadal misses the Canadian Masters and Cincinnati by foot

Rafael Nadal you will not be able to start your way in a Masters 1,000 of Canada that already had the casualties of Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem or Roger Federer, among others. The 'bogeyman' in Toronto for Nadal in Toronto would have been Daniil Medvedev, first seed of the tournament, although the manacorense could only have seen him in a hypothetical final. Nadal had to face this Wednesday a Lloyd Harris that just a week ago he defeated him in the Washington ATP 500, in the only duel between the two to date, where Nadal accused foot discomfort that impaired his performance and led to his last minute withdrawal. Although the bad news continued into the afternoon of this Wednesday, when the Cincinnati Masters, the next appointment that appeared on Rafa's roadmap, officially announced the resignation of the Balearic to participate in the tournament due to injury.

In statements released by the National Bank Open late on Tuesday, Nadal himself announced his resignation from the 1,000 Masters in Canada. “I really wanted to play here, but now is the time to make a decision and unfortunately that is the decision I have made. As you know, I have had this problem for a couple of months. Of course, it's not a happy situation after all the success I've had here in Canada. I can't play this year after the tournament couldn't be played last year. It is difficult, but it is what touches today “. Nadal's place at the 1,000 Canadian Masters will be occupied by another Spaniard, Feliciano López, who enters as a 'lucky loser' after falling in the previous one and that Lloyd Harris will be measured in this second round.

Historically, Rafa had been good at this start of the American tour in Canada, not in vain, it is the current champion of a tournament (the 2020 edition was not disputed due to the pandemic) who has won five times: 2005, 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2019. With his resignation, Nadal will not be able to test his unbeaten record in the finals of this tournament (5-0) or face a Harris (24 years old) who is in the highest ranking of his career (49th ATP) and with clear progression and before which Nadal hoped to face a more placid encounter than last week in Washington, trying to annoy the Cape Town 'gunner' from the rest to short-circuit his game, mainly based on serve (he's averaging more than 10 aces per game this season).

To the US Open, no filming

In case Nadal lacked few motivations in his preparation for the US Open, where for the first time he will compete tied with Federer and Djokovic in 20 Grand Slams, the one from Manacor would have avoided an unusual statistic with a victory against Harris. And it is that it would have prevented the South African from achieving two victories against Nadal in consecutive tournaments at the hands of the same tennis player for the first time since Federer did the same in 2017 in Indian Wells and Miami. “I try to be competitive again. I need to have the feeling of playing several days in a row without problems “, Nadal explained at the press conference upon his arrival at the tournament. The focus of the return already points to New York, where, much to its regret, it will reappear only with the two filming games played in Washington.