Roger Federer hopes Rafael Nadal returns from injury in time for French Open
Published Date – Monday, 08/05/23 at 10:30pm
New Delhi: Roger Federer is hopeful Rafael Nadal will be back from injury in time for the French Open, as the Spaniard’s absence will deal a “heavy blow” to the sport.
The 14-time Roland Garros champion, whose 19th appearance at the clay-court Grand Slam remains in doubt, is the defending champion as he continues to suffer a hip injury from his Australian Open second-round loss to Mackenzie McDonald. recovered.
The Spaniard recently announced his withdrawal from the Rome Masters. The 36-year-old withdrew from last week’s Madrid Open and also missed matches in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
“It will be brutal (without Nadal), tennis will be tough without Rafa. I still hope so, I saw him quit Roma, so I wish him the best,” Federer told Sky Sports.
“Obviously Novak hasn’t played that much, so I hope he gets strong too and then all the young guys come through. I’ll definitely be watching,” he added.
Nadal has an all-time winning percentage record of 97.4 in clay-court Grand Slam events, while maintaining the highest clay-court winning percentage record of 91.3.
Nadal has played four matches this year — two at the Fed Cup and two at the Australian Open — but lost three of them. His only victory came against Great Britain’s Jack Draper in the first round at Melbourne Park.
