Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Rolex Paris Masters 2019 ahead of his semifinal match against Denis Shapovalov due to an abdominal injury incurred during his warm-up on Saturday.

The Spaniard revealed that he had the same injury entering the 2009 US Open, but he continued to play through it, which caused more problems and so the 19-time Grand Slam champion does not want to repeat that.

Rafael Nadal noted that he remembers the strain starting as a six or seven-millimeter strain, but following his defeat against Juan Martin del Potro 2-6, 2-6, 2-6 in the semi-finals, it increased to a 28-millimeter strain, which ultimately forced him to be sidelined from the ATP Tour.

The 33-year-old wants to be careful this time around and hence he decided to withdraw from the 2019 Rolex Paris Masters, and will now head home in an attempt to recover for the ATP World Tour Finals 2019.

“I had this issue in US Open 2009. It was a bad experience because I started the tournament with around six-seven millimeters of strain and I keep playing, I keep playing and that was the year when I lost the semifinal against Del Potro,” Nadal said in the press conference in Paris.

“I finished the tournament with 28 millimeters strain so have been a big thing after that and I couldn’t play the semifinals of Davis Cup that was against Israel. So it took me almost a month outside of the tennis month so we don’t want to repeat that,” the Mallorcan added.

Despite his withdrawal, Rafael Nadal will replace Novak Djokovic as World No. 1 in the ATP rankings on Monday and will begin his 197th week at the top spot.

However, The year-end World No. 1 will be decided after  2019 Nitto ATP Finals. The 19-time Grand Slam champion is hoping to finish year-end No. 1 for the fifth time, which would tie Djokovic, Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors for the second-most all-time.