ROME (Agencies): Rafael Nadal on Friday withdrew from the Rome Masters tournament as he continues his recovery from injury, casting serious doubts over his fitness for the French Open.
The 22-time Grand Slam winner has not played since suffering a hip injury at the Australian Open in January.
The French Open, which the 36-year-old has won on a record 14 occasions, gets underway in Paris in three weeks’ time. Nadal said his injury situation has improved in the past few days but not sufficiently to be able to compete next week in the Italian capital.
“I am very sorry to announce that I will not be able to be in Rome,” Nadal wrote on his social media accounts. “You all know how much it hurts me to miss another of the tournaments that have marked my professional and personal career because of all the love and support of the Italian tifosi (fans).
“Although I have noticed an improvement in the last few days, it has been many months without being able to train at a high level and the process of readjustment takes a certain amount of time, and I have no choice but to accept that and continue working.”
The 22-time Grand Slam champion — he shares the men’s record with Novak Djokovic — had originally thought he would be out for up to two months. He pulled out of hard-court tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami, with his sights set on a return at the start of the clay-court season, but it did not come to fruition.
Nadal had to withdraw from events in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid, before eventually adding Rome, the final French Open warm-up event, to the list.
Murray reaches quarter-finals in France: Andy Murray earned a place in the quarter-finals of the ATP Challenger Tour 175 event in Aix-en-Provence with a three-set win over Laurent Lokoli.
Murray secured a 6-4 5-7 6-3 victory with his sixth match point at the Open Aix Provence Credit Agricole. The 35-year-old, who at 52nd is ranked 135 places higher than the Frenchman, made it back-to-back wins for the first time since Indian Wells in March.
He will face another Frenchman, Luca Van Assche, in Friday’s quarter-final. Murray shaded the first set before breaking serve for a 5-2 lead in the second. But the three-time major winner failed to take two match points as Lokoli, heavily backed by the home support, recovered to 5-4.
Another two match points were lost and Lokoli took the second set before Murray converted a third break point to lead 5-3 in the decider. Lokoli saved a fifth match point but a relieved Murray eventually claimed victory at the sixth attempt.
Sabalenka into Madrid final
Aryna Sabalenka cruised past Maria Sakkari in straight sets to secure her place in the Madrid Open final.
The world number two dropped just five games in a comfortable 6-4 6-1 win over her Greek opponent.
Belarusian Sabalenka, 24, will now play a second consecutive clay-court final against world number one Iga Swiatek, who cruised past Veronika Kudermetova 6-1 6-1 in her semi-final.
Poland’s Swiatek won the last meeting between the top two female players in the world in the final in Stuttgart last month.
Sabalenka, who claimed her first Grand Slam at the Australian Open in January, is hunting a second Madrid title in three years after winning the tournament in 2021.
Burrage misses chance
Jodie Burrage has missed her first opportunity to replace Emma Raducanu as the British number one.
Burrage was beaten 6-4 6-3 by Belgium’s Greet Minnen in the second round of a Challenger event in Saint-Malo.
Victory would have moved the 23-year-old above Raducanu, who will be out of action for “a few months”, in the British rankings.
