Nadal out of Olympics with knee injury

Updated July 20, 2012 07:26:52

Olympic champion Rafael Nadal's withdrawal from the London Games because of injury deprived the tournament of one of its biggest attractions and left Spain reeling.

The gold medal winner in Beijing four years ago has failed to recover from a knee problem and also misses out on the honour of carrying his nation's flag at the opening ceremony.

The Spanish tennis federation says Feliciano Lopez will be Nadal's replacement in the singles draw, while the country's Olympic committee will decide on Friday on a replacement flag bearer for the July 27 parade.

"I'm not in a condition to be able to compete," Nadal said in a statement.

"It's one of the saddest moments of my career."

Nadal won a record seventh French Open title in June but crashed out in the second round at Wimbledon in a massive upset against lowly-ranked Czech Lukas Rosol.

Earlier this month, he pulled out of a charity match against Novak Djokovic in Madrid, saying he was suffering from tendonitis and needed to rest.

Nadal had hoped to return to Wimbledon this month to defend his Olympic title and his withdrawal echoes his plight of 2009 when a similar knee problem meant he had to withdraw from the grass court major, a year after winning it for the first time in an epic final against Roger Federer.

"I have to think of my colleagues, I cannot be selfish and I have to think of the well-being of Spanish sport, especially Spanish tennis, and let a colleague play who has had a better preparation and is in a state to compete," the world number three said.

"I pushed until the last moment in my preparations, in training, but it wasn't to be.

"Today is one of the saddest days of my career as it was one of my biggest dreams, and perhaps the most anticipated moment to be the flag bearer at the opening ceremony for the Games in London.

"You can imagine how difficult it has been to take this decision."

The debate as to who would replace Nadal as flag bearer had already started in the Spanish media.

Sailing duo Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez, who have won a gold and a silver, were in the running along with basketball silver medallist Pau Gasol.

The tennis competition at the All England Club begins on July 28 with Serbia's Djokovic the top seed.

Reuters

Tags: olympics-summer, sport, tennis, spain

First posted July 20, 2012 07:22:43

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Bhupathi will not go to the Olympics with Paes

Updated June 17, 2012 17:14:11

India's Mahesh Bhupathi will not go to the London Olympics if he is separated from his usual partner and forced to play with Leander Paes, the doubles specialist said on Friday.

A row erupted when the All Indian Tennis Association (AITA) announced on Friday that Bhupathi would be prevented from competing with his normal partner Rohan Bopanna.

Instead he would have to play with Paes, with whom he won three grand slam titles before the pair had an acrimonious split.

"I have told them I will not partner Leander Paes," Bhupathi said at the Queen's Club tournament in West London.

"I have told them I am not available if they don't pick me with Rohan.

"We have been hoping all year since we decided to partner together that we were going to represent India at the Olympics.

"The decision taken today did not go in our favour so we are going to try and hope that something changes."

Bhupathi and Paes joined forces to great effect in the late 1990s, winning the French Open and Wimbledon in 1999 before claiming a second Roland Garros title two years later.

Their partnership did not endure, however, as the relationship gradually deteriorated and they ceased to play together on the tour circuit from 2002.

They announced they would never appear together again after joining up for the Asian Games in 2006, but managed to put their differences aside to play at the Beijing Olympics, where they finished joint fifth.

They played together at the Australian Open in 2011 and Paes even attended Bhupathi's wedding to former Miss Universe Lara Dutta.

While the acrimony has cooled, Bhupathi feels they do not have the relationship on court needed to succeed at the Olympics in July and August.

"We (Paes and Bhupathi) haven't practised together," he added.

"We haven't literally spoken with each other since we played last at the Masters in London in November so there is no camaraderie, there is no chemistry.

"So for me to go back to a fifth Olympics and make up the numbers is not going to be exciting at all. They have kind of killed our Olympic dream."

Paes, who completed his collection of men's doubles grand-slam titles when he triumphed at the Australian Open in January with Czech partner Radek Stepanek, was given direct entry into the Olympic doubles thanks to his top-10 ranking.

Bopanna is ranked 12th and Bhupathi is 14th.

"There is a lot of room for manoeuvre," Bhupathi said.

"The two teams have already qualified. We have qualified on our ranking as a team and Leander being top ten gets the pick of another player so there is a lot of room for manoeuvre, they just have to wake up and smell the coffee.

"It does not make any sense when logic is not prevailing.

"When you can send four people to the Olympics and the government has given us money for the year to make the Olympics and all of a sudden they are taking two spots away. It is complex and we can't understand it."

Bopanna, who won his first and only title with Bhupathi in March in Dubai, believes the AITA have underestimated the on-court chemistry between the pair.

"I have been training with Mahesh the last six months," he said.

"I even changed partners because of the fact we were going to play at the Olympics.

"We have the same coach travelling with us and it makes a huge difference having a great camaraderie."

Reuters

Tags: sport, olympics-summer, tennis, india

First posted June 16, 2012 09:23:55

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Hewitt keen for Olympics berth

Updated January 06, 2012 18:35:21

Lleyton Hewitt is keen to represent Australia at the London "Wimbledon" Olympics this year, but says he will not make a definitive call until he gets more time to assess how his troublesome left big toe holds up.

Hewitt successfully negotiated his way through three tough singles matches at Perth's Hopman Cup this week, moving well in each contest despite spending the previous three months injured on the sidelines.

After pushing world number 19 Richard Gasquet and world number 24 Fernando Verdasco to three sets, he finally earned his first singles win of the tournament when he downed China's Wu Di 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday night.

Hewitt, a proud Davis Cup combatant for Australia who also represented his country at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2008 Beijing Games, said his big left toe was "hanging in there" and hoped his foot would not flare again this year.

"I'd like to play the Olympics," Hewitt said.

"I enjoy playing on grass so if the opportunity comes up then I would love to.

"My fitness has been good, which is a positive.

"But I'm just focusing on the Aussie (Open) at the moment.

"That's the priority and then we'll worry about the others later on."

The former world number one will play at the Sydney International starting on Sunday before this month's Australian Open, where he was forced to rely on a wildcard invitation after his ranking slipped to 186.

"I still play the game for the big tournaments," Hewitt said.

"You get an adrenaline buzz every time you step out there in a grand slam.

Meanwhile, world number 33 Jarmila Gajdosova has revealed a painful trip to the dentist was behind her 6-0, 6-0 flop to world number nine Marion Bartoli a day later.

Gajdosova was reduced to tears during the embarrassing defeat, but said a painful root canal procedure the day before had thrown her off her game.

"I had a few medications in me, but that doesn't take (away) the fact that Marion was playing unbelievable and she would have beat me either way," Gajdosova said after her 6-3, 6-2 defeat to French Open champion Li Na on Thursday night.

"She played very well and unfortunately I just couldn't get any rhythm.

"As I say, it's one of those days that I just couldn't do anything about it.

"I couldn't stop it and unfortunately I got a beating the way I did and it was pretty embarrassing, but it happens and I try to forget it and learn from it and move on."

AAP

Tags: tennis, sport, perth-6000, wa, australia

First posted January 06, 2012 18:35:21

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