MELBOURNE – After retiring from his quarterfinal match against Marin Cilic, Rafa Nadal was demoralized, frustrated and as close to desperate as I have ever seen him – had he burst into tears, I would not have been surprised! The organizers of the Australian Open, who were hoping for a new chapter in the historic rival between Federer and Nadal in the final, were probably feeling the same emotions. During his post-match press conference, Rafa obviously had to answer multiple questions about his injury, such as when it occurred, and which exact muscle caused him discomfort. The injury started to visibly hamper Rafa in the fourth set. He also called the physical therapist for an on-court treatment, but – once he lost his service at the beginning of the fifth set – Rafa understood that there was nothing he could do. He approached the chair umpire Eva Asderaki and said: “No mas”. Thanks to Nadal’s retirement, Cilic advances to the semifinals where he will be the overwhelming favorite against world No. 49 Kyle Edmund.
This is the eighth time that Nadal retires from a professional tennis match, and the second time that he retires at the Australian Open. In 2010 he retired in the quarterfinal match against Andy Murray when he was down 6-3, 7-6, 3-0.
Rafa will remain world No. 1 at the end of this tournament, but there will be a small gap of only 155 points between him and Federer in case the Swiss wins the title. If this injury forces Rafa to take a long break from the tour, the Spaniard will certainly lose his No. 1 ranking.
Nadal said that his plan for the first part of the season was to play only four tournaments – Melbourne, Acapulco, Indian Wells and Miami – in order to preserve his body. It is now unclear whether Rafa will be able to play in Acapulco or he will be forced to withdraw. Nadal has been complaining for years about the length of the hard-court season. Of course, the Spaniard would like the clay court season to be much longer, but the tour has now become more of a business than an actual sport, like Djokovic has said in multiple occasions.
9 of the 14 mandatory events are played on hard-courts and there is no doubt that the number of injuries has grown immensely in the past few years. Players have been sidelined for months or even longer stretches because of multiple injuries that affected not only tour veterans such as Federer, Djokovic, Wawrinka, Nadal, Murray and Almagro, but also younger athletes such as Nishikori, Raonic, Kokkinakis, del Potro and Janowicz. Players are forced to play 4 Grand Slams, 8 Masters 1000 tournaments and another couple of smaller events to consolidate their ranking.
“It is not necessarily the number of tournaments, it is the different surfaces. There are too many injuries and we must start thinking about the players’ health. It is not only about tennis, we will all have a life after our tennis career is over. If we continue to play on these hard surfaces, I don’t know what will happen to us players once we retire from the sport,” Nadal pointed out in his post-match press conference.
Cilic – who is certainly more of a hard-court player than a clay court player – has a different opinion on the subject matter: “The calendar has been the same for many years. Both last year and early this year we see that many tennis players are injured. At the end of the day, it’s up to us to take care of our body and choose a healthy schedule. There are many tournaments to choose from. Tennis is a global sport and that is what we all want.”
With Nadal’s withdrawal, Murray’s absence and Djokovic’s loss, Roger Federer is now the only superstar that could save the tournament. At this point, a final with Cilic would be the best possible outcome. A final between Edmund and Sandgren would be a nightmare for the tournament organizers. Roger leads the head-to-head with Berdych 19-6. The last time that they played was in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open last year, when the Swiss barely avoided elimination after saving two match-points.
Quarterfinal day started with two pleasant surprises: Two young players – both born in 1995 – unexpectedly reached the semifinals. In the men’s tournament, Kyle Edmund of Great Britain pulled off a major upset defeating world No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov, while in the women’s event Elise Mertens of Belgium beat world No. 4 Elina Svitolina. Edmund will take on Cilic in the semifinals, while Mertens will face world No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki.
The eight times that Rafa Nadal retired from a professional tennis match:
2018 Australian Open QF: Marin Cilic d. Rafael Nadal 36 63 67 (5) 62 20 ret
2016 Miami 2R: Damir Dzumhur d. Rafael Nadal 26 64 30 ret
2010 Australian Open QF: Andy Murray d. Rafael Nadal 63 76 (2) 30 ret
2008 Paris QF: Nikolay Davydenko d. Rafael Nadal 61 ret
2007 Cincinnati 2R: Juan Monaco d. Rafael Nadal 76 (5) 41 ret
2007 Sydney 1R: Chris Guccione d. Rafael Nadal 65 ret
2006 London / Queen’s Club QF: Lleyton Hewitt d. Rafael Nadal 36 63 ret
2005 Auckland 1R: Dominik Hrbaty d. Rafael Nadal 63 ret
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
