Rafael Nadal pulls out of Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics

Rafael Nadal will not play at Wimbledon or at the Tokyo Olympics, saying on Thursday he has decided to skip the two tournaments after “listening” to his body.

“Hi all, I have decided not to participate in this year’s Championships at Wimbledon and the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It’s never an easy decision to take but after listening to my body and discuss it with my team I understand that it is the right decision,” he said on Twitter.

Nadal, a 20-times Grand Slam winner, played at the Monte Carlo Masters, Barcelona, Madrid Masters and Rome Masters before the French Open.

Nadal, a record 13-times champion at Roland Garros, made a run to this year’s semi-finals and was knocked out by eventual champion Novak Djokovic in a four-set thriller — only his third loss on the Parisian clay where he has won 105 matches.

Nadal has won two gold medals at the Olympics — a singles title in 2008 in Beijing and a doubles gold at Rio 2016, where he was the flag bearer for Spain.

“The goal is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy, that is to compete at the highest level and keep fighting for those professional and personal goals at the maximum level of competition,” Nadal said.

He said the fact there was only two weeks between Roland Garros and Wimbledon “didn’t make it easier” on his body to recover from “the always demanding” clay-court season.