World number one Rafael Nadal withdraws from Wimbledon 2009

In the picture, Wimbledon 2008 champion Rafael Nadal with Ian Ritchie - Chief Executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club during the press conference in London - Friday 19 Jun 2009.
The defending champion Rafael Nadal decided to pull out from Wimbledon tournament this year due to his on-going knee injuries. Nadal started well 2009 by winning the first grand slam of the season - Australian open - but shortly after, he started to become overwhelmed by medical problems. He lost the final of the Rome tournament to world number 2 Roger Federer and also against Swedish Robin Soderling at the French Roland Garros. Trying to take rest and go back to fitness, the Spaniard was constrained to quit the Wimbledon warm-up at Queen's club. The last trainings were done on Thursday when lost to Australian Lleyton Hewitt in an exhibition match and on Friday when was beaten again by Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in another exhibition match. Following these results, it was obvious that Nadal was not in his best shape thus loosing the battle to recover from the knee injury. Friday (19/06/2009) Rafael Nadal decided to withdraw from Wimbledon (which starts on Monday 22 Jun 2009) becoming the forth player in the men's single tennis history not being able to defend his title after Stan Smith and John Newcombe in the 1970s, and Goran Ivanisevic in 2002.

Video Rafael Nadal press conference Wimbledon 2009 withdrawal (in spanish).