Rafael Nadal's ongoing injury caused many firsts in his career and missing the Monte-Carlo Masters and Madrid Open is another one.
Only recently, the experienced Spaniard dropped out of the Top 10 for the first time in 18 years. As his injury recovery continues, Nadal is still not able to enter ATP tournaments and his ranking continues to drop but also, it's the first time that he misses so many events in a very long time.
With a recovery that is not progressing as expected, this marks the first time since 2004 that the Spanish legend misses both the Monte-Carlo Masters and the Madrid Open in the same year.
Back then, his withdrawals from the first two ATP 1000 clay-court events were followed also by missing the Italian Open as well as his most successful Grand Slam tournament, the Roland Garros, which he never played in his career until 2005, when he won it for the first time and started a series of four consecutive victories.
This year, missing the Roland Garros will be something that the 14-time French Open champion will want to avoid. Many suggest that it's unthinkable to have a clay-court major without Nadal, but it may become a reality.
In his long career, Roland Garros was the only Grand Slam tournament that Nadal never missed since he played it the first time in 2005. He skipped the Australian Open in 2006 and 2013, he didn't play at Wimbledon in 2004, 2009, 2016, and 2021, and he also missed the US Open four times, in 2012, 2014, 2020, and 2021.
At Roland Garros, Nadal played every year since 2005 and his win record is more than impressive. The Spaniard won 112 of 115 matches that he played there, winning a title on 14 out of 18 occasions. However, this record may never be improved with his body getting older and injuries mounting up.
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