Playing Wimbledon ‘not a good idea’ as Nadal eyes Olympicspublished at 11:04
Jonathan Jurejko
BBC Sport at Roland Garros
Rafael Nadal says it would not be a “good idea” to play Wimbledon as he targets this year’s Olympics instead.
After losing in the French Open first round on Monday, the 37-year-old Spaniard said returning to Roland Garros at the Paris 2024 Games is now his “main goal”.
Wimbledon, where Nadal won in 2008 and 2010, starts on 1 July. The Olympic tennis tournament begins on 27 July.
“For me now [it] looks difficult to make a transition to grass, then having the Olympics again on clay,” said Nadal. “I cannot confirm anything. I need to talk with the team and analyse facts. But I don’t think it’s going to be smart after all the things that happened to my body to make a big transition to a completely different surface and then come back immediately to clay.”
Nadal, ranked 275th in the world, is almost certain to need to use a protected injury ranking to play in the Paris Olympics. The 22-time Grand Slam champion has suffered a catalogue of physical problems over the past 18 months.
Nadal, who won the singles at Beijing 2008, is earmarked to play Olympic doubles for Spain with reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz.
“If everything goes well, we are going to play doubles together here,” Alcaraz confirmed after his French Open first-round win on Sunday.