A distraught Nadal addressed the press after retiring from the Australian Open, talking about the scheduling issues that have plagued the sport and have made the injury list a pretty populated affair.
Nadal, who was suffering from a hip injury during his quarter-final against Cilic, had to ultimately retire, after he was broken in the decider.
Nadal now joins the long list of top players on that injury list, with Andy Murray having already pulled out and Djokovic having to play through a reignited elbow injury in his 4th round match with Chung.
“Somebody who is running the tour should think a little bit about what’s going on. [There are] too many people getting injured. I don’t know if they have to think a little bit about the health of the players.” Nadal said.
“Not for now that we are playing, but there is life after tennis. I don’t know, if we keep playing on these very, very hard surfaces, what’s going to happen in the future with our lives.” he added.
The World Number one then went onto talk about his injury and how he would be going about the entire situation.
“I can’t say [now] because I don’t know [the extent of the problem]. It just happened 10 minutes ago and it is impossible to know.” the Spaniard said.
“This type of injury is difficult to know immediately. We need to wait a couple of hours. Tomorrow [Wednesday] I am going to do a test, an MRI here, then we will know.
“It’s high on the leg. But I don’t want to lie. Tomorrow we are going to communicate what’s going on after the MRI. It is not the moment to say what’s going on or what’s not going on because we really don’t know and the doctor really doesn’t know yet. It’s better to wait just a few hours. Give me that time, and tomorrow afternoon we’ll let you know.”
Rafa was positive about the future but devastated about what transpired in Melbourne having worked so hard in the off season to get back in shape after the injury that he had suffered late last season.
[These are] tough moments. I’m a positive person, and I can be positive, but today is an opportunity lost to be in the semi-finals of a grand slam and fight for an important title.
“I don’t want to say [there is] frustration, but it is really tough to accept, especially after a tough December that I had without having a chance to start in Abu Dhabi and then Brisbane [due to a knee injury].
“I worked hard to be here. We did all the things that we believed were the right things to do to be ready. I think I was ready.” Nadal concluded.
