Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Australian Open on Friday, claiming he was still suffering from the stomach virus which caused him to cancel his return to action in the Gulf this week after a six-month absence. Nadal, an 11-time Grand Slam title winner, has also withdrawn from the Qatar Open which starts on Monday and where he was due to play his first official tournament since losing in the second round at Wimbledon in June. The Spaniard, who has been sidelined with a crippling knee injury, had already missed the Olympics, the US Open and Davis Cup final.
"My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as predicted by the doctors, but this virus didn't allow me to practice this past week and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the Australian Open, as we had initially scheduled," the 26-year-old, world number four said in a press release.
"As my team and doctors say, the safest thing to do is to do things well and this virus has delayed my plans of playing these weeks. "I will have to wait until the Acapulco tournament (in February) to compete again although I could consider to play before at any other ATP event. "I always said that my return to competition will be when I am in the right conditions to play and after all this time away from the courts I would rather not accelerate the comeback and prefer to do things well."
Nadal, the record-breaking seven-time French Open champion and who had been due to make his comeback in an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi this week, will also face a drop in the rankings having been runner-up to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final in 2012.