MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Top seed Rafael Nadal lost his second round match to Mackenzie McDonald at the Australian Open on Wednesday after suffering an injury.
This is not the first time the 22-times Grand Slam champion has suffered a debilitating injury during a match at Melbourne Park.
2010 – Nadal was forced to withdraw from his quarter-final against Andy Murray while trailing the Briton 6-3 7-6 3-0. The knee injury kept Nadal out of competition for a month.
2011 – Nadal reached the quarter-finals, where he faced compatriot David Ferrer. Although clearly hampered by hamstring injury sustained early in the match, he played on and lost 6-4 6-2 6-3. He returned to action a month later.
2014 – Nadal reached the final and faced Stanislas Wawrinka but suffered a back injury during the warm-up, which progressively worsened as the match wore on. He lost 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-3 and was out of competition for three weeks.
2018 – Nadal was forced to retire in the fifth set from his quarter-final against Marin Cilic while trailing 3-6 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2 2-0 because of a hip injury, which kept him sidelined for more than two months.
2023 – Defending champion Nadal appeared to suffer a strain in his left hip in the second set of his second-round match against American Mackenzie McDonald. He battled on but ultimately bowed out in a 6-4 6-4 7-5 defeat.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney and Hritika Sharma; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
