French Open: Old injury resurfacing puts Rafael Nadal's participation in Jeopardy

The French Open 2022 tournament is a couple of days away from opening and Rafael Nadal's participation looks uncertain following the latest setback the player confronted. The Australian Open Champion has once again suffered an injury that has jeopardized his participation in the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. Nadal was bundled out by Shapalov from the Italian Open clay-court tournament by winning the match 1-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Tennis news: Rafael Nadal suffers foot injury ahead of French Open 

With the Roland Garros tournament all set to commence in 10 days, Rafael Nadal's French Open bid suffered a major setback after the former World No 1 suffered a chronic foot injury during his match against Shapalov. According to a Yahoo report, the Spaniard walked over and leaned on his towel box and grimaced in pain. He also limped between points. Speaking about the foot injury, Rafael Nadal said that he will do everything in his power – including having his doctor on hand in Paris – to try and win the French Open title. 

He said, “I had my foot again with a lot of pain. I am a player living with an injury; it is nothing new. It's something that is there. Unfortunately, my day-by-day is difficult, honestly… it’s difficult for me to accept the situation sometimes. Today at half the second set, it starts and then it wasn't playable for me… I don't want to take away anything from Denis… Today is for him. Well done for him.”

Rafael Nadal reveals how foot injury has impacted his practice

The Italian Open tournament was only the second tournament for the 21 times Grand Slam Champion after the rib injury he suffered in March during Indian Wells. Sharing more insight regarding the foot injury, Nadal said, “Since I came back, the foot has been tough. It's tough for me to be able to practise the proper way days in a row. So then you need to move well to compete at the highest level, something that I am not able to practise. The toughest thing for me today is honestly I start to feel myself play much better. I started the match playing much better. My practice was much better than the warmup the other day.”