Nadal out of Australian Open

MELBOURNE. December 30. KAZINFORM Rafael Nadal has sent shockwaves throughout the tennis world after withdrawing from the Australian Open, CNN said.
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The 11-times grand slam champion, who reached the final in Melbourne last year, had been expected to make his comeback from injury next month.

Nadal's withdrawal means he will slip out of the top four for the first time in over seven years.

After pulling out of an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi this week with a stomach infection, Nadal was still expected to compete at the ATP event in Doha before making his way to Australia.

The 26-year-old, who has not played since his shock second round defeat by world number 100 Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon, had hoped to make a return to action following a six-month absence with a knee injury.

But a virus has forced Nadal to pull out of both Doha and the Australian Open following discussions with doctors.

He said: "My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as predicted by the doctors, but this virus didn't allow me to practice this past week and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the Australian Open, as we had initially scheduled.

"As my team and doctors say, the safest thing to do is to do things well and this virus has delayed my plans of playing these weeks.

"I will have to wait until the Acapulco tournament to compete again, although I could consider to play before at any other ATP event.

"I always said that my return to competition will be when I am in the right conditions to play and after all this time away from the courts I'd rather not accelerate the comeback and prefer to do things well."

Nadal has endured an injury-ravaged year, missing out on defending his Olympic title at London 2012 as well as sitting out the U.S. Open and Spain's Davis Cup final defeat in November.

Coach and uncle Toni Nadal believes his nephew was left with little choice but to cancel his plans to compete in Melbourne after contracting the virus.

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