Rafael Nadal will skip Wimbledon so he doesn’t have to switch from grass to clay for the Olympics
Associated PressRafael Nadal is going to skip Wimbledon, as expected, and instead prepare for the Paris Olympics by entering a clay-court tournament in Bastad, Sweden, he hasn’t been to in 19 years. Nadal was defeated in the first round of the French Open late last month by eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev — marking the first time in Nadal’s career he has lost consecutive matches on clay. Nadal will play doubles — with Carlos Alcaraz — and singles at the OIympics, Spanish men’s tennis captain David Ferrer said Wednesday. “But I don’t think it’s going to be smart, after all the things that happened to my body,” Nadal continued, " now make a big transition to a completely different surface and then come back immediately to clay.” He won two titles at Wimbledon, beating Roger Federer in the 2008 final and Tomas Berdych in the 2010 final.