At the 2022 Italian Open on Thursday, Rafael Nadal suffered a shock defeat to Denis Shapovalov. The Spaniard, eyeing his 11th title in the Italian capital, couldn’t compete physically and fell short before giving his best. The King of Clay started the match on a high note. However, the match-up took a sudden U-turn with Shapovalov going all over the Spaniard. During the press conference, Nadal admitted his loss was a result of pain in his left foot.

Nadal is known for his never give up attitude. An example of the same was seen at the Australian Open where he won his 21st Grand Slam after being out of the tour for 6 months. However, to everyone’s surprise, the Spaniard has certainly dropped a hint of early retirement. The reason? His non-ending saga with his foot.

Rafael Nadal on reaching a stopping point

Following his loss to Denis Shapovalov in the third round of Rome, Nadal opened up on his foot injury. He talked about how his injury has been a constant barrier for him since 2005 when it was first detected. On a number of occasions in his career, the former World No. 1 has reached the peak point, but hasn’t been able to maintain it due to the Mueller-Weiss Syndrome.

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During the press conference yesterday, the legendary Spaniard admitted that he was not injured but revealed that he is a player living with an injury. Nadal also confessed that it is not just his tennis but also his day-to-day activities that get affected by his foot pain.

Keeping all the factors in mind, Rafael Nadal gave a major reason for concern to his fans as he dropped a slight hint of retirement. The 35-year-old, who had his dream run at the start of the 2022 season, yesterday admitted that pain in his foot takes away all his happiness.

“There will come a time when my head says enough is enough, because pain takes away my happiness. Not just for tennis, for my life.”

Nadal’s Roland Garros title in danger?

Rafael Nadal kicked off his year on an extremely high note. However, a rib injury forced the Spanish sensation to be out of the tour for a month. This resulted in a delay in his clay-court campaign. After missing out on Monte Carlo and Barcelona, the Spaniard started off his clay-court campaign in Madrid, where he suffered a quarterfinal loss and now in Rome with a third-round loss.

Following this surprising loss in Rome, Nadal will also witness a huge drop in his singles ranking. As a result, the Spaniard will potentially face his biggest rival Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros.

Taking the above three points into consideration and looking at the potential competition from players like Carlos Alcaraz, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Rafael Nadal will have to put all his nerves in place if he wants to win his 14th Roland Garros title.

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