Nadal’s perfect start to the season came to an end in Indian Wells, as the 35-year-old lost his first match of the year in the final and picked up an injury. The world No 3 appeared to be getting treatment for a pectoral issue in his semi-final win over Carlos Alcaraz and looked hampered by the same problem as he lost the final to first-time Masters champion Taylor Fritz the following day.
After returning to Spain, the world No 3 confirmed he had cracked one of his ribs during the tournament and would be out of competition for 4-6 weeks as a result. His injury layoff means he will not be able to start the clay-court season – his notoriously most successful surface – with the recovery time including the Monte Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open, where Nadal is an 11 and 12-time champion respectively.
Prior to the Indian Wells final, the Spaniard was 20-0 for the season, a career-best start, which included titles in Melbourne, Acapulco and a record 21st Grand Slam title in Acapulco. He had been gunning for Djokovic’s record of 37 Masters 1000 titles which he would have tied by winning Indian Wells, and could have started chasing the world No 1 in the rankings with some strong showings in the clay-court season.
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“With this in mind & the evolution it has, we’ll see if we can shorten the time, tho 4-6 weeks is quite logical,” he added. Meanwhile, Nadal has shared his disappointment after having his perfect start to the year derailed just before his best period of the season.
“This is not good news and I did not expect this. I am sunk and sad because after the start of the season I have had such a good time,” he tweeted after announcing the stress fracture. “I reached a very important part of the year with very good feelings and good results. But hey, I’ve always had that fighting and overcoming spirit and what I will do is be patient and work hard after my recovery. Once again thank everyone for the support.”