The tennis world has reacted with great disappointment after Spanish legend Rafael Nadal confirmed he won’t be seen on the grass courts of Wimbledon this year … and most likely never again.
It was reported yesterday that the two-time winner would skip the grass-court grand slam to prepare for the Paris Olympics on Swedish clay courts, and now the 38-year-old veteran has confirmed the sad news on social media in a lengthy message to fans
“During my post match press conference at Roland Garros I was asked about my summer calendar and since then I have been practising on clay. It was announced yesterday that I will play at the summer Olympics in Paris, my last Olympics,” Nadal said on social media.
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“With this goal, we believe that the best for my body is not to change surface and keep playing on clay until then. It’s for this reason that I will miss playing at the Championships this year at Wimbledon.
“I am saddened not to be able to live this year the great atmosphere of that amazing event that will always be in my heart, and be with all the British fans that always gave me great support. I will miss you all.
“(But) in order to prepare for the Olympic Games, I will play the tournament in Bastad, Sweden. A tournament that I played earlier in my career and where I had a great time both on and off the court. Looking forward to seeing you all there … Thank you.”
At the Olympics, Nadal is expected to play doubles with Carlos Alcaraz and also singles.
Realising that Nadal is likely never to feature in a serious capacity at Wimbledon again, fans were naturally in shock, but some were also perplexed by his decision.
“I’m literally bewildered why Rafa isn’t playing Wimbledon. I genuinely thought he was playing the singles in Olympics, only to find out he’s in the doubles with Alcaraz. So your binning Wimbledon off for doubles Rafael Nadal, bewildering to say the least.”
But other fans thought it was a wise decision.
“Your British fans will really miss you! Love you Rafa! Your passion, energy and breathtaking shots will be missed at Wimbledon but sensible to stay on clay! Vamos for Bastad! Vamos for Olympic glory again!” one said
And another wrote: “I will be watching and cheering from afar Rafa🥳👏🏼💪🏼Thank you for sharing and cannot wait to see you back on court🎾 😍Take care and all the best with your preparations ❤️.”
Novak Djokovic is also likely to be absent as he recovers from knee surgery.
Despite the absence of the champions, ticket demand “has never been greater”, according to Deborah Jevans, the new chair of the All England Club which organises the event.
Jevans also revealed Wimbledon’s total prize money fund has risen to nearly A$100m for this year’s tournament, double what it was a decade ago.
Total prize money will rise to a record Stg 50 million ($A96 million), an increase of 11.9 per cent on last year.
The singles champions will each earn $A5.2m, a 14.9m per cent jump, while first round losers will get $A115,000 each, a nine per cent rise.
The club also said they had been in contact with other grand slam hosts about the possibility of creating a domestic violence policy.
“Clearly that’s something that the sport would want to do on a unified basis,” Sally Bolton, the club chief executive, said on Thursday about forming a policy.
“It is something that is pertinent and therefore has been discussed.”
Centre Court will continue to begin play at 1:30pm local time despite concerns expressed by Djokovic and Andy Murray that such scheduling inevitably leads to late starts for a day’s last match.
Because the tournament site is in a residential area, there is an 11pm curfew for competition so some matches have to be held over for completion the following day.
– With AAP