Wounded Warrior
*** 
****MIAMI—The persistent knee soreness that has troubled Rafael Nadal since 2009 has resurfaced here in the last few days of the early-season U.S. hard-court swing, forcing the Spaniard to withdraw from the Sony Ericsson Open and quashing any chance of a long-anticipated rematch against the player who vanquished him in an epic Australian Open final two months ago, Novak Djokovic.
Nadal let tournament officials know he was unable to play before noon today, just hours before he was scheduled to meet Andy Murray in the semifinals (Djokovic will face Juan Monaco in the other semifinal tonight.) In a press conference not long thereafter, Nadal said: “I am not ready to compete today. I am very sorry for the fans. I'm very sorry for the tournament. I'm very sorry for everybody who were ready to watch the match on the television, for television, for everybody. But I don't have pleasure. I cannot do it another thing. I am not ready to compete, and I cannot go on court and lie to everybody. That's the thing today.”
The injury, in his left knee, is a flare-up of the tendinitis that has troubled Nadal since the spring of 2009, when the condition (at the time, in both knees) played a role in his fourth-round loss to Robin Soderling at the French Open, where Rafa was the four-time defending champion. Nadal was sanguine today about his chances for a quick recovery, because he’s learned to manage the tendinitis that now appears to be a permanent part of his life as an athlete.
“But seriously the tendons are much better today than three years ago,” he said. “The treatments worked fantastic. Even if today a really bad knee and last couple of days were tough for me, but positive thing the tendon improve a lot the last couple of years. I am more health with both tendons than now. . For the last couple of years, 2010, 2011, I was able to compete with perfect conditions for almost all the year. So that's always fantastic when that's happening.”
Nadal’s knees were fine at the start of the year, he said, but he began to feel some twinges near the end of his training month of February in Mallorca. He said the pain was noticeable in Indian Wells, but it didn’t keep him for playing “100 percent.”
Accustomed to managing his condition, Nadal expects to mitigate the pain and be back in excellent health for the upcoming clay-court season. “Just go to the doctor hopefully tomorrow,” he said, “And hopefully in a few days, with a few days off and with the right treatment, I will be in the right conditions to start to practice on the clay.”
Nadal vigorously denied the implication that he might be pulling out as a precautionary measure intended to improve his chances in the portion of the year when he’s been most successful. “So I am not thinking, ‘I am not going on court today not because I have the clay-court season.’ I am not going on court today because I cannot go on court today. Nothing about clay-court season. Clay-court season is there in two weeks, but this tournament is very important for me, and I feel very sad to have to go out before a beautiful match for me, semifinals against Andy.”
The withdrawal was a big blow to day-session fans at this tournament, which sticks with the split-session format (day and night) for the semifinals, even though that means offering just one singles match in each session. Ticket holders for today’s day program are eligible to exchange their tickets for a session next year, and they can stay to watch the doubles match between Vania King and Monica Niculescu versus Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova, which was moved to the 3 pm time slot.
The organizers here have experienced comparable crises on more than one occasion. The most notable one occurred in 1989, when finalist Thomas Muster’s knee was crushed on the evening of the final by a courtesy car. The injury nearly ended his career. The tournament scrambled to find a suitable replacement to meet Ivan Lendl in the final, and came up with Swiss player Jakob Hlasek—who just happened to be relaxing in Miami. Hlasek won the impromptu exhibition, 6-3, 6-4.
In 1996, Goran Ivanisevic awoke with a stiff neck on the morning before he was to meet Andre Agassi in the final. He tried to play, but had to quit after losing the first three games. And in 1998 Pete Sampras had an upset stomach and had to withdraw from the quarterfinals. In the Ivanisevic case, little could be done to avoid the disaster. And in ’98, Sampras’ quarterfinal wasn’t the only premium match of the day.
I hope Nadal’s withdrawal makes the tournament review its split-semifinals policy. There’s an element of Russian roulette to the format, even if under normal conditions a quality doubles and ATP singles semi provides adequate value for a ticket-buyer.
Nadal left the tournament in a philosophical mood, saying: “Today is bad news, but that's the sport. We cannot expect playing as much as we play, be perfect every day of our life. Today is my turn. Everybody have problems, and I will be working hard to be back quick on court, and to play my best in Monte Carlo.”