Nadal dumps Mexico Open after injury flare up
Sports •
now my main goal is to find out the extent of the injury1 world number two rafael nadal pulled out of the mexican open on tuesday cutting short his comeback from a hip injury when the problem flared up again1 nadal favored to win the tournament had been due to face fellow spaniard feliciano lopez1 i took all the appropriate steps to arrive at the tournament in form. i went to cozumel first to adapt to the climate he told reporters1 but yesterday in my last training session before the tournament during one movement i felt a sharp pain again in the same area where i had the problem in australia1 nadal limped out of the quarter-finals at the australian open on january 23. he has since lost his number one ranking to roger federer1 nadal said doctors in mexico warned him not to play for fear of aggravating the injury1 i still dont know what it is because we dont know. it seems its not as bad as what i had at the australian open he said1 my goal and hope was to play in this tournament. unfortunately in my last training session yesterday i felt a sharp pain in my leg again the 31-year-old spanish star said hours before what was to have been his opening match of the atp tour event in acapulco1 this marks the fifth tournament in a row that nadal has pulled out of or retired from the australian open brisbane london paris and acapulco1 earlier in the week the 16-time grand slam winner nadal announced himself fully fit and said he was looking forward to competing again1 i took a couple of weeks of rest and worked hard on rehabilitation he told reporters prior to pulling out. last week i started practicing hard again. i feel ready1 nadal is expected to remain at least one more day in acapulco to have more tests done1 maybe it is a minor situation but the reality is that there is liquid and until it goes down a bit and the relevant tests are done it will not be possible to diagnose he said1 while a victory this week would not have been good enough to overhaul federer it would leave nadal primed to replace the swiss star at indian wells or miami next month1 the 2008 olympic gold medal winner is known as the king of clay and is considered the greatest clay-court player in the history of the sport1 but his success is not limited to clay. nadal has won 10 french open titles three us opens two wimbledons and one australian open1