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ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

October 31, 2018

Rafael Nadal

Paris, France

THE MODERATOR: Rafa has to pull out of event with an injury. He will explain quickly what happened and then we'll open it up to a few questions.

RAFAEL NADAL: Good afternoon. Yeah. Well, very easy. You know, I arrived here a couple of days ago. As everybody knows I have been outside of the competition since the US Open. So I taked my time off. I come back. It was great to be here in Paris for a couple of days and practice with the guys. I enjoy it. I feel myself in terms of tennis better than what I really thought one week ago.

But I still got, the last few days I start to feel a little bit the abdominal, especially when I was serving. And I was checking with the doctor and the doctor says that is recommended to not play, because if I continue the abdominal maybe can break and can be a major thing, and I really don't want that.

It have been a tough year for me since that moment in terms of injuries so I want to avoid drastic things. And if maybe I can play today, but the doctor says if I want to play the tournament, I want to try to win the tournament, the abdominal with break for sure. So will be not fair and not good for me and for nobody to go inside the court knowing that probably the full tournament will not be possible to play.

So that's it. Of course I am not happy, but of course I have to accept and stay positive, yeah.

Q. Have you been given any indication with the longer term, obviously with a view to London, would you still be optimistic about that?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don't know. You know, I am very sorry but I cannot answer you. I just go day by day, as I did all my tennis career. In terms of this kind of a stuff, I have to be checking daily about things how it improves.

But as I said hundreds of times, I would love to be in London of course. But the most important thing for me is to be healthy, be healthy and have the chance to compete weeks in a row. Something that I was not able to do this year, playing only nine events and retiring in two. So that's the real point.

I have to think little bit at the longer term. Today, I want to keep playing tennis for a couple of years. And thinking that way, I have to do the logical things, and the logical thing today is not play here. And talk about London, the logical thing is don't have a clear answer right now.

Q. You must be tired of those injuries. You take it as it's bad luck this year? Do you see any reason why it kept popping up to you this year or what is the mindset after this new setback?
RAFAEL NADAL: No, I don't like to be injured. I don't like this bad news, of course. And I hate to be here and have to pull out from the event. Especially here in this city even more than in -- you know, one is always feeling is bad when you have to say I'm not going to play.

But I tried since the last moment. You know, I have been here. I was checking with the doctor until one hour ago. I practiced today in the morning. I practiced yesterday. I think I did all the things that have been in my hands to play here. I tried. I came here.

I'm not concerned if it was a negative decision to not be here. I was very excited and happy to be here and have been a very positive few days for my mental part too, to be again here practicing with the guys. I enjoyed that. And I felt myself competitive, but it's just that I explained before. It's just I can follow the recommendations of the doctor. I can't go against that, in my opinion, today, especially before the tournament start.

Q. Can you just confirm the abdominal injury. Is it a completely new injury? Have you had it before and has the doctor just said to rest, is that the solution?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don't know if we can talk about a real injury. I can talk about a pain that bothers me every time that I serve. It would not be fair to say it's a real injury today but what is sure, if I continue it will be a real injury. So that's the point.

As you know, when you come back after injuries, and you push a little bit the body at the beginning, some issues can happen. And that's a possibility. I pushed to be here, but in the normal way, you know, not doing, you know -- I didn't make something too quick or something bad to be here. No, I did the normal process.

But when I arrived here, I played, as I said, with the professional players, I practiced with all of them. I feel that the abdominal was every day a little bit more charged. I don't know how to say. So it bothers me for the serve.

And then I visited the doctor two days ago. We keep trying until today. Today I felt it a little bit more and we checked again. And, yeah, as I said before, the recommendation was not to play.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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