Rafael Nadal Gives Positive Update Ahead of ATP World Tour Finals 2019 Match

Rafael Nadal, who is racing against time to be ready to compete at the ATP World Tour Finals 2019, is hopeful he can be fit to play the year-end event, next week.

Earlier, Rafael Nadal was forced to pull out of the Rolex Paris Masters 2019 semi-finals last week after feeling pain in his abdomen during his warm-up ahead of his match against Denis Shapovalov. He underwent a serious of scans in Mallorca to confirm he had not sustained any serious injury.

Giving a positive update about his conditions after practicing at the O2 Arena in London, Rafael Nadal wrote on Twitter, “Update? Okay, I’m in London happy to be taking it day by day after Paris (small abdominal tear). I need to see how things go, started serving yesterday very slowly.”

“Right now the main goal is to be ready on Monday following the protocols that the doctor gave me,” the World No.1 further added.

According to the reports of Spanish publications El Pais, Rafael Nadal’s doctor Angel Ruiz Cotorro explained that the Mallorcan will wait until Saturday or Sunday to decide whether to play the ATP World Tour Masters 2019 or not.

Nadal, who made his debut at the year-end event in 2006 had also withdrawn from last year’s ATP World Tour Finals as he had finished his season earlier after picking up a knee injury during the US Open.

Despite his injury pull-out last weekend at Paris-Bercy, the 19-time grand slam champion returned to the top of the ATP rankings on Monday, dethroning Novak Novak Djokovic. However, the 32-year-old is competing with the Serbian for the year-end No.1 rank and will have to reach the finals to retain the No.1 ranking disregarding Djokovic’s result.

Nadal is drawn in the Andre Agassi group with Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and defending champion Alexander Zverev.

Rafael Nadal has never won the ATP Finals title before, losing to Roger Federer in 2010 and to Novak Djokovic in 2013.