Foot injury forces Nadal's withdrawal from Canadian Open

Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Canadian Open on Wednesday due to the foot injury that prevented him from playing at Wimbledon and the Olympic Games.

Five-time champion Rafael Nadal withdrew from the Canadian Open due to a foot injury. USA TODAY Sports - Dan Hamilton

The 35-year-old Spaniard, who has won the title five times, was scheduled to play against the South African Lloyd Harris who beat him last week in the third round of the Washington Open where Nadal was making his comeback after six weeks on the sidelines.

"I've had this problem for a few months," said Nadal. ”This situation is not a happy one after all the success I have had here in Canada and especially since we couldn't play last year.”

Fears

Nadal’s withdrawal increases questions over whether he will feature at the final Grand Slam tournament of the year at the US Open which begins on 30 August in New York.

“With this pain, I am not able to enjoy being on court and I really don't believe that I have the chance to fight for the things that I really need to fight for," he said.

"I really wanted to play in Canada a lot but now is the moment to make a decision. This is unfortunately the decision that I have taken and probably in the next couple of days we are going to know more."

The second seed’s spot was taken by Feliciano Lopez who lost during the qualifying tournament for the main draw.

On Tuesday, top seed Daniil Medvedev advanced to the last 16 with a three-set win over Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan.

Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas also needed three sets to progress to the last 16.

The Greek squandered five match points during the second set tiebreak against the Frenchman Ugo Humbert but raced through the decider 6-1 to set up a clash with either the 15th seed Aslan Karatsev or Karen Khachanov.