Nadal's late-season injury jinx strikes again

Rafael Nadal's vulnerability to late-season injuries resurfaced this weekend as the 19-time Grand Slam champion was forced out of the Paris Masters with an abdominal muscle strain.

The 33-year-old has carved out one of the sport's greatest-ever careers in spite of persistent injury troubles, a pattern which has continued in 2019.

The latest problem has put his participation at both the ATP Tour Finals and the Davis Cup in doubt.

Nadal, who has never won the title at Bercy or the Tour Finals, also withdrew from the Paris Masters before the quarter-finals on his last appearance in 2017 with a knee problem and missed last year's tournament with another abdominal injury.

The world number two, who will usurp Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings next week, has still only won two ATP titles indoors, a figure at least partly down to his November injury woes.

He had been due to play Canadian youngster Denis Shapovalov in the semis with a final against Djokovic at stake, but announced he was pulling out just minutes before the scheduled start of the match on Saturday.

But Nadal insisted it was not worth the risk, having also suffered with a similar injury 10 years ago.

"I had this issue in the US Open 2009 with a bad experience," he said. "Because I started the tournament with, if I remember, around six, seven, millimetres of strain and I keep playing, I keep playing.

"I finished the tournament with (a) 28-millimetre strain, so have been a big, big thing after that.

"I remember (it) well because I couldn't play semi-finals of the Davis Cup against Israel... So for me, I took almost a month outside of the tennis court, so we don't want to repeat that."
- Long injury history -
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"No, that's not an issue."