Rafael Nadal to withdraw from Basel but commits to Paris Masters amid world No. 1 battle with Roger Federer :-: Metro
METRO
Rafael Nadal is set to pull out of the Swiss Indoors in Basel but still intends to play at the Paris Masters amid his battle for year-end world No. 1 spot with Roger Federer, according to reports in Spain.
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The top ranked player hinted at changing his schedule following his Shanghai Masters final defeat to the Swiss, where his right knee was taped up.
‘I don’t want to talk about that [the strapping on his knee] now, sorry,’ he said after the 6-4 6-3 loss. ‘After losing final is not the moment. I am not worried, though.
‘I don’t know about Basel. I need to think about it. I cannot tell you now.’
According to El Espanol, Nadal has decided to skip Basel in order to rest his body to be fully prepared for both the event in Paris-Bercy and the World Tour Finals in London.
While his knee issue is not thought to be serious, the strain of playing such a strenuous period on a hard-court in both Beijing and Shanghai, adding to what has already been a 75-match year, caused him to strap-up the patellar tendon on his right knee.
Federer will now have the opportunity to make up some ground on Nadal in his home country, with 500 points up for grabs for the winner.
Should he win the event, he will cut the gap between them to 1,460, with 1,000 points up for grabs in Paris and a further 1,500 on offer at the O2 in London.
However, the 19-time Grand Slam champion also hinted at his own schedule changing.
‘I mean, I don’t even know what it takes to be honest [to become world No. 1],’ he told Sky Sports after the win. ‘I just know the World Tour Finals is a must and probably Paris too and probably Basel so that all depends on how Rafa plays.
‘It’s a wild thought, that’s why I’m not even thinking about it to be quite honest at this point.
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‘I was thinking about it going into the Montreal finals and hopefully Cincinnati and the US Open but I mean it just all didn’t work out the way I was hoping – so no problem there.
‘I’ll just try to be healthy now, go back to the drawing board when I go back to Switzerland tomorrow with my team and we’ll decide what I’m going to play – Basel, Paris – one of those tournaments or both or none – before I go to London because that’s my priority right now.
‘I want to really win the World Tour Finals and then we’ll take it from there next week.’
