Nadal hopes future changes can reduce injuries

Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal has said he hoped a long-term solution can be found to reduce the number of injuries on the tennis circuit.

Nadal retired on Tuesday night while trailing Croatian world No. 6 Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 2-0 in the Australian Open quarter-finals. He will be out for three weeks after an MRI he underwent in Melbourne revealed a Grade 1 strain of his iliopsoas muscle, reports Efe.

In his remarks on Thursday, Nadal recalled that he brought attention to a recent spate of injuries on Tour at the start of the Australian Open, a Grand Slam event he decided to play despite concerns about a right-knee injury.

"When there are more injuries than usual, it's because something's happening," the world No.1 said after he and his team arrived at the airport serving Palma de Mallorca, capital of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands.

Nadal made his remarks at a time when numerous players are suffering or trying to recover from injuries, among them Serbian 12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic (elbow) and a pair of three-time major champions -- Scotland's Andy Murray (hip) and Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka (knee).

He stressed, however, that he was not calling on the Tour to immediately make changes, such as moving more tournaments to surfaces easier on the body or shortening the tennis calendar.

"But if within a few years there's a chance for some change that would benefit future generations of tennis players and improve their quality of life, that would be very positive, especially for the health of the athletes," the 16-time Grand Slam champion said.

The Spaniard was clear, however, that he had no plans to retire in the short term.

"I don't know how long I'll play, whether it will be three, four or five more years. But when that time comes, I'll know and I won't be afraid. But now I'm not thinking about my retirement," he said.

Nadal, a 10-time French Open champion on the clay court, said that when referring to the detrimental effects of hard courts -- the most commonly used surface on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour.

"Few sports, as is the case with tennis, are played (mainly) on cement, hard, very aggressive surfaces, but I'm just another player giving his opinion," said Nadal, who will recover from his injury in his home town of Manacor.

--IANS

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