The Judgment day, the Armageddon day, has arrived for Rafael Nadal, the legendary Spanish champion who wrote some of the most indelible pages of tennis history. In just over an hour there will be the long awaited and much feared press conference in which Nadal, according to rumors from the Spanish media, will announce his withdrawal from Roland Garros, and even the date of his retirement from tennis.
But is it certain that this will be the outcome of his press conference? I actually hypothesized three different scenarios. The first scenario. Rafael Nadal will say in the press conference that he will not play the Roland Garros, due to the persistent injury he has been carrying since the Australian Open, and which forced him to miss the entire first part of the season.
Without any mention of a possible retirement date from tennis. In this case, Rafa feels unable to play in Paris, but he knows that he still can play and win titles once he gets over the injury. The second scenario, the worst.
The injury is even more serious than expected. Rafael Nadal is not only forced to miss the Roland Garros, but he will also be forced to retire from tennis. Immediately, by the end of 2023 or with a precise date, which the Spanish champion could also directly provide during the press conference.
The third scenario, the most romantic. Rafael will try to play at the Roland Garros 2023, knowing however that that will be the last tournament of his career. A last assault on Bois de Boulogne, to then say goodbye to tennis right in the tournament that consecrated him the greatest tennis player ever on clay-courts, one of the best in history, one of the greatest sportsmen the world has ever had in the lucky to see.
We recall Nadal hasn’t played since the second round of the 2023 Australian Open, the match he lost to American tennis player MacKenzie McDonald. On that occasion, during the second set, Nadal suffered an injury to the psoas muscle, a break that was technically supposed to be for six weeks but which instead saw him out for months.
