SALON

Monday, Apr 16, 2012 5:15 PM UTC

Nadal worried about knee heading into clay season

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Nadal worried about knee heading into clay seasonSpanish player Rafael Nadal at a training session of the Monte Carlo Tennis Masters tournament in Monaco, Sunday, April 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)(Credit: AP)

MONACO (AP) — Rafael Nadal is fretting over his troublesome left knee as he attempts to win his eighth straight Monte Carlo Masters and end a title drought dating to last year’s French Open.

Nadal pulled out of his semifinal against Andy Murray at last month’s Sony Ericsson Open. He then received treatment for a knee tendon problem after having already skipped a chunk of the season to rest his knees following the Australian Open.

“It’s OK now. (I need) time to see how it is at the top level, run without thinking about the knee, when I put all my pressure on the knee,” Nadal said Monday. “It’s the start of the clay-court season for me, and hopefully it will work well.”

But the 10-time Grand Slam champion expects to be rusty in his second-round match against Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen on Wednesday. He started practicing only four days ago.

“I’s not enough after 15 days off without chances to practice a lot because I couldn’t move my knee,” the 25-year-old Spaniard said. “I’m a little bit scared, but seems like today I am able to practice with no (problems).”

Nadal rested his knee after the Australian Open, where he lost his seventh straight tour final to top-ranked Novak Djokovic. He didn’t play again until several weeks later at Indian Wells, where he lost in the semifinal to Roger Federer in straight sets.

At the following tournament in Miami, his left knee flared again. He withdrew hours before he was to play Murray.

“It’s not easy to explain, in English especially. Even in Spanish it will be difficult. I had a little bit broke in the tendon on the top, but especially behind the knee,” Nadal said. “I did (have an injection). I did the treatment two times.”

He is relieved to be back on clay, where there is less stress on his knees.

“The worst surface for the players is the hard,” Nadal said. “I believe we are wrong in the tournament(s) to play more and more on hard (courts), and less and less on clay and grass.”

Since 2005, Nadal has won at Monte Carlo and Roland Garros every year except ’09.

“It’s special to come back to a place where I have more success than (anyone),” said Nadal, who has won 37 consecutive matches in Monte Carlo and holds a 39-1 record. “The conditions worked for me in the past, I always played my best tennis here, I believe.”

The six-time French Open champion, who could face Djokovic in the Monte Carlo final, is playing down his title slump.

“I didn’t win a title, but how many final I played?” asked Nadal, who has 46 career titles to 73 for Federer. “I am doing my calendar to try and win important titles, or the most important titles on the tour, to try to be healthy as long as I can.”

More Jerome Pugmire.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
147 points148 points | comment
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
128 points129 points | 91 comments
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
127 points128 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
114 points115 points | 32 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
78 points79 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations