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Update — Nadal has officially announced he will withdraw from the French Open and miss a few months to recover. Nadal didn’t give a timetable for his return to tennis.
Rafael Nadal is expected to announce on Thursday that he is going to withdraw from the 2023 French Open, per reports coming out of Europe. Nadal is going to hold a press conference on Thursday to make the announcement, not being able to compete due to a hip injury.
Nadal sustained the hip injury in the 2023 Australian Open back in January. In that event, he lost in the second round to Mackenzie McDonald while playing through noticeable pain, even taking a medical timeout at one point.
The 22 time Grand Slam winner has not competed since then, most recently withdrawing from the Madrid Open last month.
Nadal won the 2022 French Open, defeating Casper Ruud in the final. The Spaniard has claimed five of the last six titles at Roland-Garros, winning the event 14 total times in his career. That’s a record for the most titles, male or female, in any major tournament.