2016 FRENCH OPEN: 9-time Champion Rafa Nadal Withdraws With Left-Wrist Injury

14-time major champion Rafael Nadal is used to celebrating his birthday during Roland Garros, the major title that he has won a record 9 times. He was hoping to win the tournament a record 9-times and had won his first two rounds quite easily. However, when Nadal turns 30 next Friday, it looks like he will be celebrating this landmark at home, because he withdrew from Roland Garros today, citing a left-wrist injury.

He won his 200th grand slam match on Thursday and now sports an impressive 200-30 career record at major tournaments,

"This is one of the toughest press conferences of my career," Nadal continued, admitting he was playing through the pain barrier. "If it wasn't Roland-Garros, I probably wouldn't have taken the risks. It's the most important event of the year for me.
"We took the risks yesterday. To have won the tournament I would have had to play five more matches and the doctor told me that was 100 per cent impossible.
Nadal, wearing a wrist brace, said the injury first flared up during his quarter-final match in Madrid against Joao Sousa earlier this month, after which he underwent treatment in Barcelona before heading to Rome, where he lost in the quarter-finals to Novak Djokovic.
Having played on anti-inflammatories in Italy, Nadal said the pain began to return prior to his departure for Paris.
"When I arrived here, every day is worse," Nadal said. "I cannot play with my forehand. That's the real thing."
By withdrawing from Roland-Garros, Nadal hopes to avoid surgery to his wrist.
"For the moment I need a couple of weeks with the immobilisation. Then we're going to do the treatment, and we hope the treatment works well. We expect to recover quick, to be ready for Wimbledon. But at this moment, you know, it's not a moment to talk about that."
"I feel myself with the right motivation and the right energy to be back at Roland Garros the next couple of years," he added. "It’s a tournament that I love so much."

Read more at http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/articles/2016-05-27/rafael_nadal_withdraws_from_rolandgarros.html#BJAmlEpD26XSEMFb.99

He played his second-round match Thursday after getting an injection to numb his wrist. But he said that he began ''to feel more and more pain'' overnight and could not move his wrist much Friday morning, so went for an MRI exam.''The results,'' he said, ''are not positive.''Nadal added that he can no longer practice and wouldn't have been able to finish the tournament.''I cannot play with my forehand,'' Nadal said, referring to his best shot, a spin-laden uppercut.He said there is inflammation in the tendon sheath in his wrist and was told that there is no way he could be given five more painkilling injections - one before each possible match, were he to make it all the way to the final - over the next 10 days.

Only two players have ever beaten Rafa at Roland Garros, Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling but it looks like a 3rd, more formidable opponent is going to also claim a victory: Father Time!

A major without both Rafaen Nadal and Roger Federer? I guess we better start getting used to it sooner rather than later...