Rafael Nadal: Injuries almost forced me to cancel my season before French Open title

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Giuseppe Muro10 July 2019

Rafael Nadal has revealed he considered taking an extended break from tennis earlier this year because of injury problems.

The Spaniard plays Sam Querrey here at Wimbledon today, bidding to set up a blockbuster semi-final against Roger Federer, after battling through one of the toughest periods in his career.

Nadal has been hampered by a combination of hip, knee, ankle and stomach problems and admits the past two seasons have been “a mess”.

After retiring from his US Open semi-final against Juan Martin del Potro in September with a knee problem, he then had ankle surgery in November and played just three events this year prior to the clay-court season.

The 33-year-old came through his injury problems to win his 12th French Open at Roland Garros in June and he is playing as well as he ever has at Wimbledon.

But, as he tries to win here for the third time — and the first since 2010 — Nadal has revealed the dark times he had to come through.

“Mentally, after Indian Wells [in March], I suffered a major downturn,” he said. “Ideas and scenarios were swirling inside my head. I considered shutting down my season to see if my body would recuperate instead of playing through injury after injury.

“For the last two months and a half, I was able to conclude all of the tournaments that I played, which is so important.

“But, honestly, during the previous 18-20 months, it was a mess for me. Too many injuries last year and then at the beginning of this season again some troubles.

“But I was able to find again the health and was able to play five tournaments in a row on clay. That gave me self- confidence again with my body — and that is the main thing because [since then] I have been playing well.”

Big-serving American Querrey has a strong record at Wimbledon and has made the quarter-finals in three of the past four years.

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