Former world number one and 14-time Grand Slam title winner Rafael Nadal shut down his season on Thursday to concentrate instead on recovering full fitness for a fresh trophy assault in 2017.
The 30-year-old has been plagued by physical problems and has now gone through a second successive campaign without adding to his majors collection.
A left wrist injury forced him to withdraw from the French Open before the third round and kept him on the sidelines until the Olympics. “It is no secret that I arrived to the Olympic Games short of preparation and not fully recovered, but the goal was to compete and win a medal for Spain. This forced recovery has caused me pain since then and now I am forced to stop and start preparing the 2017 season,” Nadal wrote on Facebook.
Nadal, ranked at six in the world, suffered a shock second round defeat to Victor Troicki at the Shanghai Masters last week.
- NDTV