Rafael Nadal Should Think Twice Before Withdrawing

Published 01/07/2019, 2:41 PM EST

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The 17-time Grand Slam champion, Rafael Nadal was expected to be onboard for his 2019 season in Brisbane against the Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The French tennis player lately reminisced about his 2008 Australian Open where he overthrew Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal and reached the final in Melbourne. It was the second consecutive withdrawal for Nadal after the one in Paris in October 2018. Despite having the will to play, his left thigh strain compelled the Spaniard to turn down his participation in the Queensland tournament. However, he feels, injuries are all part of the game.

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Nadal has retired withdrawn or retired 18 of his past 19 hard court tournaments. His ageing body is denying to bolster up performance on the hard courts. The only hardcourt tournament which is completed was in Toronto where he edged past Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Rogers Cup final. As this year began the Spaniard was affirming with his decision to play in Brisbane and gear up for the Melbourne major, but however, the thigh strain which barged in demanded him to withdraw from the tournament at the end moment.

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Nadal receives a lucrative amount of appearance fee for ATP 250s and 500s tournaments. If his circumstances are forbidding the Spaniard to play in an event, he should rather donate his appearance money for charity purpose or rather utilize it for some good cause. It is futile to accept a seven-digit number cheque for not doing anything significant. Without any second thought, Rafa is a GOAT tennis player, but his modest actions off the court would add greatness to his personality. He must definitely think twice before retiring from an event if his body impels upon that he must make good use of his appearance fee. 

In the 2018 season, the Vienna Open organisers lured Nadal to participate in the Austrian tournament. “We need fresh money, and Asia is a big market,” organisers said. “If Nadal would play, we would definitely exceed the €4m limit that we spend on players. I guess he wants to play again in 2018 and 2019, and then looks from year to year. We will offer him a longer-term contract”. Later, his poor fitness did not let him participate in the event. 

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In the Hopman Cup this year, the Swiss legend Roger Federer received USD 1.4 million to participate in the Perth event. Also, the maestro advertised the Western Australia tourism by visiting The Pinnacles. In return, the Western Australian government aided the Hopman Cup to remunerate Federer’s appearance fee. Stan Wawrinka retired from a second-round match in Marseille and he refused to accept his appearance fee. The tournament officials donated some amount of his fee to a few charitable foundations that help children. Also, in the Basel Open last year, he withdrew from the tournament without playing a single match and donated all his appearance fee to the charity.

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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