Rafael Nadal pulls out of Wimbledon and Tokyo Olympic Games saying "goal is to prolong my career"

Rafael Nadal has pulled out of Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympic Games to prolong his career and ability to compete at the highest level.

Rafael Nadal has decided to pull out of the Wimbledon Championships and the Tokyo Olympic Games. The reasoning behind his decision was explained as 'prolonging his tennis career'. It's not clear whether Nadal has sustained an injury or if he simply feels tired but the news came out of nowhere.

Nadal announced the shocking news with a statement on his official Twitter Page that reads:

"Hi all, I have decided not to participate at this year's Championships at Wimbledon and 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 is the right decision. 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. The fact that there has only been 2 weeks between RG and Wimbledon, didn’t make it easier on my body to recuperate after the always demanding clay-court season.

They have been two months of great effort and the decision I take is focused on looking at the mid and long term. Sport prevention of any kind of excess in my body is a very important factor at this stage of my career in order to try to keep fighting for the highest level of competition and titles.I want to send a special message to my fans around the world, to those in the United Kingdom and Japan in particular.

The Olympic Games always meant a lot and they were always a priority as a Sports person, I found the spirit that every sports person in the world wants to live. I personally had the chance to live 3 of them and had the honor to be the flag bearer for my country.“