Rafael Nadal Wednesday cursed the miserable luck which has plagued him since being dumped out of Wimbledon, a period which saw him sidelined with injury before being struck with appendicitis. "(It) is true that the last few months I was not in the best of luck," the world number two said after crashing out the Shanghai Masters in his opening match.
The tournament's second seed was diagnosed with appendicitis on Sunday, but showed no obvious signs of suffering from the condition in his 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) loss to compatriot Feliciano Lopez. The 14-times Grand Slam winner is competing in his second event since returning from his latest injury layoff, which stretches back to the end of July. He crashed out of last week's China Open at the quarter-final stage in his return to competition, and admitted afterwards that he is still far from his best form.
The 28-year-old insisted he was still fit to play in Shanghai after he was put on a course of antibiotics which relieved stomach pains and helped avoid immediate surgery. But the French Open champion was left cursing a poor run of luck since he was forced out at Wimbledon by 19-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios in July. "I didn't have the best of luck since Wimbledon," he said.
"I was playing a good year, very positive year. After that I was unlucky with the wrist, what's going on now... Obviously the last couple of months have been little bit hard for me." After his defeat in Shanghai, the 28-year-old said he did not want to discuss his condition, other than to say he felt "a little biz more dizzy". "I lost. Feli played better than me. That's it. I talked about that yesterday, so I don't need to talk again about my health," he said. He also said he would wait until the "end of the year" to have appendix surgery, as he did not want the condition to return during a major tournament.