Nadal to miss Indian Wells, Miami due to lingering hip injury

Madrid March 3 (IANS) Spain s tennis great Rafael Nadal has announced that his lingering hip injury will prevent him from playing in this month s Indian Wells Masters and Miami Open tournaments adding that his goal is to recover in time for the clay-court season.

"Unfortunately the injury I suffered in Acapulco before starting the tournament is in the same area as the one suffered in Melbourne. I won t be able to play in Miami or Indian Wells as I need to recover " Nadal said in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Friday.

That injury forced the Spaniard to retire in the fifth set of his Australian Open quarter-final match against Croatia s Marin Cilic in January and also prevented him from participating in this week s Mexican Open reports Efe.

"I will miss you and I will do everything that s possible to be back there in 2019 " he added.

The Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Open are two of the biggest hard-court tournaments on the tennis calendar.

But Nadal s priority every year is the clay-court season and in particular the French Open a Grand Slam event held in late May and early June that the Spaniard has won a record 10 times.

--IANS
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