Nadal to inform about French Open participation in press conference on Thursday

Nadal, who turns 37 next month, has not played a match since sustaining a hip injury during his second-round loss to USA’s Mackenzie McDonald at the Australian Open in January.

FILE PHOTO: Twenty two-time Major winner Rafael Nadal. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Rafael Nadal is set to inform whether he’ll play at this year’s French Open or not in a press conference in Mallorca, Spain on Thursday.

The French Open begins on May 28.

“Rafa Nadal will hold a press conference tomorrow at 4pm (7:30pm IST) at the Rafa Nadal Academy to inform about his participation in Roland Garros. If he plays or not and the reasons either way will be only be communicated tomorrow,” the 22-time Major winner’s team said.

Nadal has not missed French Open since making his debut at the clay Major in 2005. The Spaniard has won the title a record-breaking 14 times in Paris with the most recent one coming at last year’s edition when he beat Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in the final.

However, Nadal, who turns 37 next month, has not played a match since sustaining a hip injury during his second-round loss to USA’s Mackenzie McDonald at the Australian Open in January. During this period, he has also dropped out of the ATP Top 10 for the first time since his entry in April 2005.

Initially, Nadal had said that he would miss “six to eight weeks” post the injury which would have meant him being ready for the clay-court season in mid-April. However, he later admitted that he was still in the “preparation process” and ended up missing the events in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and this week’s Italian Open in Rome.