Andy Roddick is less optimistic about the chances of Rafael Nadal this year if the stories about his injury rehabilitation are true.
There is a lot of speculation that Nadal will probably withdraw from the Madrid Open after he withdrew from the Barcelona Open. It comes due to the Spaniard still not being fit enough to play competitive tennis and it's not good news with Roland Garros inching closer and closer.
Working as an analyst on the Tennis Channel Roddick admitted that the news coming out of Spain could be concerning because hip injuries are not your common injuries. It takes a lot of time to properly recover and you're always at a risk of injuring yourself again.
Yeah, it very well could be. Listen, did any of us think he was going to sneak two slams in last year, be healthy, and play a solid amount of tennis through the first seven months? Probably not. The space between his injuries is getting tighter and tighter. It seems like they are cumulative now.
Whereas he used to play, he would take three or four months off at a time but then come back completely healthy. It does not seem like he has been completely healthy since last year's run at Wimbledon.
Roddick could be right that Nadal is battling something cumulative meaning that he'll never be fully healthy again. That is something that is familiar to both Roddick and many other tennis players but it doesn't make it easy to compete.
According to the former number one, Nadal is likely going to focus mainly on Roland Garros moving forward and see what he can do there. It's the one grand slam where he'll always have a chance considering how good he is on clay, even now.
For the rest of his career, he is going to draw a bright red circle around the French Open and do everything in his power to get matches going in. This is a real concern if he's missing out on Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, and Madrid. He's a diesel engine, he needs those reps going into events. This is very concerning for Rafa fans.
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