Rafael Nadal’s ongoing back injury prevents him to play in Dubai.
Rafael Nadal recently took to Twitter to validate that he was proposed a wildcard to the upcoming 2021 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. But the Spaniard refused the offer, on the grounds that he isn’t ‘ready to play yet’.
Over the past few days there have been numerous claims about Rafael Nadal’s partaking in the Dubai Open, with many stating that the 20-time Major champion had accepted a wildcard to the event. Nadal has put an end to all the gossip with his latest tweet, but he acknowledged that he had entertained the possibility of playing in the Middle Eastern city of Dubai.
“I would like to thank the @DDFTennis for the wild card invitation sent to me,” Nadal wrote. “We seriously thought about coming to play, but I don’t think I am ready to play yet. Once again thanks to the tournament’s kind invitation and best of luck with the tournament ?”
Rafael Nadal is presently recovering from a back injury that also forced him to pull out from the Rotterdam Open. Nadal’s back has been worrying him since the ATP Cup, where he had to sit out of all his singles matches.
Nadal had declared a couple of weeks ago that he wouldn’t be competing at the Acapulco Open either, in spite of the fact that he was the defending champion in Mexico.
The Acapulco event director Raul Zurutuza had apparently claimed that a dispute in the appearance fee amount was what had led to Rafael Nadal’s backing out from the event. Nadal apparently charges a figure between $500,000 to $1 million as attendance fee for events below the rank of a Masters 1000.
Rafael Nadal has in the recent past preferred playing in Acapulco than Dubai, so it would have been curiosity arousing if he had taken part in the latter this year. The fact that Rafael Nadal had contemplated the prospect of playing in Dubai indicates that there may have been some honesty in Zurutuza’s claims.
Rafael Nadal last appearance at the Dubai Open was 13 years back, in 2008, where he was defeated in the quarterfinals by ultimate winner Andy Roddick. Nadal does, nevertheless, have a title to his name at this Dubai event; the Spaniard defeated arch-rival Federer in the 2006 final.
Nadal’s return to Dubai appeared like a solid possibility for a while, but regrettably for the tournament and his fans, it was not to be. As things stand, Nadal is likely to come back to the tour at the Miami Masters, slated to begin on the 24th of March.
Miami is one of the 3 Masters 1000 events that Nadal has not once won. The Spaniard has been the runner up in the Floridian city as many as five times, but has not been able to win on each occasion of reaching the finals.
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