"Wouldn't be smart"

For the Olympics! Nadal will probably forgo Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal will probably miss out on Wimbledon.(Bild: AP/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Spain's tennis star Rafael Nadal will probably forgo the grass-court classic at Wimbledon after his first-round defeat at the French Open against Alexander Zverev.

The 22-time Grand Slam tournament winner revealed immediately after his three-set defeat on Monday that he did not want to jeopardize what is probably his last career goal, the Olympic Games in Paris, which will be played on his favourite surface, clay, at the Stade Roland Garros.

It looks "difficult" at the moment because of the grass season, said the 37-year-old: "I don't know if it would be so smart to switch to a completely different surface now after everything that has happened to my body and then go back to clay." Nadal has triumphed twice in his career (2008 and 2010) at Wimbledon. The third Grand Slam tournament of the season starts on July 1, the Olympic tennis tournament begins on July 27.

Defeat taken sportingly
The 14-time tournament winner was eliminated in the first round for the first time in his 19th French Open appearance. As Nadal is currently planning to end his glorious career at the end of the season, it is likely to be his last appearance at his favorite tournament, which he has shaped like no other for almost two decades. Nadal, who only made his comeback on the tour in mid-April and entered the French Open unseeded for the first time due to various injuries, took his first-round exit in a sporting manner.

Due to the unfortunate draw, he had to play against "one of the best tennis players in the world" and pulled himself out of the affair very respectably: "I wasn't that far away, that's my feeling and my truth."