Since his last retirement from US Open semi-finals against Juan Martin Del Potro due to knee injury, Rafael Nadal was set to play his match against fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco. Rafael Nadal touched base at the last regular competition of the season focusing on his 34th Masters 1000 title and expected to coordinate Djokovic’s performance to stay at the summit of the men’s rankings.
Unfortunately, the seventeen time grand slam champion, Rafael Nadal was suffering from an abdominal injury and made the decision to withdraw shortly before his match. Malek Jaziri is said to replace Nadal against the match with Fernando Verdasco. Rafael Nadal mentioned that he did not want to play until he was in his best form. He proclaimed that it has been a troublesome year for him as far as injuries are concerned thus he would want to abstain from doing anything drastic and would take rest.
Be that as it may, it is Novak Djokovic who will top when the most recent ATP rankings show up on Monday, regardless of his destiny in the French capital this week. Serbia’s thirty one years old professional tennis player, Novak Djokovic, who crushed Joao Sousa on Tuesday, will become the first player who ranked outside Top 20 and climbed to No. 1 in the same season similar to Marat Safin back in 2000. Novak Djokovic, who won his opening round at Paris Masters, is looking forward to his fifth title at the tournament this week.
Meanwhile Roger Federer, World number three will face the Italian player, Fabio Fognini who ranked 14 after his Hungarian opponent Marton Fuscovics withdrew due to his injury.
Rafael Nadal’s withdrawal also puts in doubt if Nadal will be returning for the ATP Tour finale at Paris.
Source – The Guardian, The National
