Nadal Withdraws From Basel With Knee Soreness
Nadal Withdraws From Basel With Knee Soreness
Rafael Nadal has been forced to withdraw from next week’s Swiss Indoors Basel with knee soreness. The World No. 1 had reached back-to-back hard-court finals at the China Open (d. Kyrgios) and the Shanghai Rolex Masters (l. Federer) as part of a 16-match winning streak dating back to his 16th Grand Slam title at the US Open.
The ATP World Tour 500 tournament released a statement Tuesday confirming the withdrawal: “After seeing his team doctor in Barcelona, the World No. 1 sadly had to pull out of the Swiss Indoors Basel. According to his doctors the Spaniard suffers from overstressing of the knee. The problems were already present at the tournament in Shanghai… His spot as top seed in Basel will now be taken by Roger Federer, the other dominant player of the 2017 tennis season.”
Nadal remains a strong favourite to finish year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the fourth time in his career. However, should Federer win Basel for the eighth time, he will earn 500 points and cut Nadal’s current lead to 1,460 points ahead of the Rolex Paris Masters, where 1000 points await the winner.
The final event Nadal and Federer will play this season is the Nitto ATP Finals at The O2 arena in London, from 12-19 November. The world’s biggest indoor tennis tournament offers 1,500 points to an undefeated champion.
The Swiss Indoors Basel still boasts an impressive player field including Federer, Marin Cilic, Juan Martin del Potro, David Goffin, Nick Kyrgios and Roberto Bautista Agut.