Rafael Nadal confirmed on Thursday that he will skip Wimbledon in order to focus on the Paris Olympics, which will take place on the clay courts at Roland Garros.
This decision follows an announcement from Spanish tennis officials that the 14-time French Open champion would partner with Carlos Alcaraz at the Games in late July.
Nadal, aged 38, suffered a surprising first-round defeat at Roland Garros last month and had hinted at the possibility of skipping Wimbledon, which is played on grass courts.
He has previously won Wimbledon twice, in 2008 and 2010. The injury-plagued Spaniard, currently ranked 264th in the world, stated after his early exit in Paris that transitioning to a different surface would not be wise.
“It looks difficult to make a transition to grass, having the Olympics again on clay,” he said at the time.
The former world number one, who won the Olympics singles title in Beijing in 2008, only returned to competition in April after missing most of the past 16 months through injury.On Thursday he confirmed on social media that he will not be travelling to London to take part in the third Grand Slam of the year.
“During my post-match press conference at Roland Garros I was asked about my summer calendar and since then I have been practising on clay,” he tweeted.
“It was announced yesterday that I will play at the summer Olympics in Paris, my last Olympics.”
He added: “With this goal, we believe that the best for my body is not to change surface and keep playing on clay until then.
“It’s for this reason that I will miss playing at the Championships this year at Wimbledon. I am saddened not to be able to experience the great atmosphere of that amazing event that will always be in my heart, and to be with all the British fans who have always given me great support. I will miss you all,” said Nadal.
Nadal, who previously teamed up with Marc Lopez to win the Olympic doubles title at the 2016 Rio Games, will prepare for Paris by participating in the Bastad clay court tournament in Sweden, starting on July 15.
The veteran, ranked second on the all-time list of men’s Grand Slam winners behind Novak Djokovic, will partner with newly crowned French Open champion and reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz in the doubles event at the Olympics.
Both Nadal and Alcaraz will also compete in singles at the tennis tournament in Paris, beginning on July 27.
Nadal, who has a 7-5 win-loss record this year, had previously mentioned before the French Open that there was a chance he might not return to Roland Garros but insisted that he was still keeping the door “100 percent open” on continuing his career.
Nadal’s withdrawal from Wimbledon, which commences on July 1, is a significant setback for organizers, especially considering Djokovic’s status as a major doubt after undergoing a knee operation.
