Rafael Nadal Assessments Constructive for the Coronavirus

Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis star, introduced that he had examined constructive for the coronavirus in Spain on Monday after getting back from an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi.

Nadal, a former No. 1 and one of many biggest gamers within the sport’s lengthy historical past, shares the boys’s document with 20 Grand Slam singles titles. However as a result of he missed many of the second half of the 2021 tennis season due to a continual downside together with his left foot, he performed solely 29 matches this season.

His constructive take a look at, introduced Monday, casts doubt on whether or not he’ll return to the circuit subsequent month for the Australian Open, the primary Grand Slam event of the yr.

“I’m having some disagreeable moments however am relying on feeling higher little by little,” he stated in a put up on Twitter in Spanish on Monday. He added: “As a consequence of the scenario, I’ve to keep up whole flexibility with my schedule, and I’ll analyze my choices relying on how my scenario evolves.”

Nadal stated he had taken a P.C.R. take a look at after returning to Spain from Abu Dhabi and was now confined to his residence in Manacor on the Spanish island of Majorca. He stated he had knowledgeable all these with whom he had been in shut contact about his take a look at end result, together with his spouse Maribel, his father Sebastián, his health coach Rafael Maymó and two of Nadal’s coaches: Carlos Moyà and Marc López, in line with El País, a Spanish newspaper.

The checklist of shut contacts additionally presumably included Nadal’s two opponents within the Abu Dhabi exhibition: Andy Murray and Denis Shapovalov, each of whom defeated Nadal.

Juan Carlos, the previous king of Spain, attended Nadal’s match with Murray on Friday and met on Saturday with Nadal and Moyà, in line with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

Nadal is the most recent tennis star to contract the coronavirus. No. 1 Novak Djokovic examined constructive for it in 2020. No. 2 Daniil Medvedev did so earlier this yr, as did Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 within the girls’s singles rankings, and Coco Gauff, the rising American teenager who was unvaccinated on the time and was pressured to overlook the Summer season Olympics.

In contrast to Djokovic, who has not revealed his vaccination standing, Nadal has been an advocate for vaccination and stated he would adjust to the upcoming Australian Open’s determination to require gamers to be vaccinated.

“If the individuals who actually learn about it say that we have to be vaccinated, who am I to create a special opinion?” he stated in Abu Dhabi final week.

Nadal ranked sixth after his abbreviated 2021 season, needed to withdraw from Wimbledon, the Summer season Olympics and the USA Open this yr due to Müller-Weiss syndrome, a congenital foot situation that first troubled him in his teenagers however which he has lengthy been in a position to handle with customized insoles and remedy.