2024 may be the last year in Nadal's career

For the first time since 2004, 14-time Roland-Garros champion Rafael Nadal will not participate in the tournament due to a lingering hip injury sustained at the Australian Open Tennis Championships

Reported Tennis.com.

Nadal has announced that he will not be able to defend his title in Paris.

The announcement was essentially a formality, given that Nadal consistently refused regular tournaments in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. With every week that Rafael did not participate in a major competition on the clay-court, participation in the French Open became more risky.

And no matter how amazing Nadal's record at Roland-Garros was – 112 wins and three losses – it was unrealistic for fans to expect that the veteran would flip the switch at this stage of his career. It would also be reckless for Nadal, who is still aiming to perform for at least another year.

"I’m not going to be able to play in Roland-Garros," Nadal confirmed. "I was even working as much as possible every single day for the last four months. We were not able to find a solution to the problems I had in Australia."

Spaniard also declared that 2024 could be his final year on tour.

"My goal is to stop to give myself an opportunity to enjoy next year. That's probably going to be my last year in the professional tour," Nadal said.

Rafael Nadal is one of four tennis players in the history of tennis (one of two in the Open Era) who managed to win at least twice each Grand Slam tournament. He ranks second in the tennis history winning over USD 130 million prize money during his career.

He is the owner of the so-called career "Golden Slam" in singles (all Grand Slam tournaments in different years plus Olympic gold). The world's only owner of the so-called "Red Slam" - a win-win series of three consecutive tournaments on clay of the Masters series and the French Open (Roland-Garros). He is considered one of the greatest clay court player of all time.