Defending champion Nadal not playing in US Open

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Spanish star Rafael Nadal announced that he will be skipping the 2020 US Open after weeks of finalizing his thoughts despite being the defending champion.

Just like Nick Kyrgios, Nadal is also worried about the rising cases of the COVID-19 pandemic, a thing he said that is still uncontrollable as of now.

“After many thoughts I have decided not to play this year’s US Open. The situation is very complicated worldwide, the COVID-19 cases are increasing, it looks like we still don’t have control of it,” posted Nadal on his Twitter account.

Nadal joins Kyrgios and women’s world no. 1 Ashleigh Barty that opted out of the prized tournament because of COVID-19 fears.

Aside from the COVID-19 woes Nadal is having, he also criticized the scheduling the international tennis tournament organizers released.

With the US Open happening from August 31 to September 13, the grand slam tournament will then be followed by the French Open after two weeks.

“This is a decision I never wanted to take but I have decided to follow my heart this time and for the time being I rather not travel. We know that the reduced tennis calendar is barbaric this year after 4 months stopped with no play,” added Nadal.