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Nadal pulls out with injured wrist

Mark MeadowsMay 27, 2016

Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the French Open with an injury to his left wrist. He said he had been playing with painkilling injections in the early rounds. Among the women, Annika Beck bowed out.

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Frankreich French Open Rafael Nadal in Paris
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/EPA/I. Langsdon

Rafael Nadal unexpectedly bowed out at Roland Garros on Friday, saying his left wrist would not permit him to play his third round game.

"I have a problem with my wrist... Yesterday I played with an injection, I could play but yesterday night I started to feel more pain," left-hander Nadal said. "Today I felt I could not move my wrist." The most successful player in history at Roland Garros, the "King of Clay" said that he "probably wouldn't take the risk of playing" in the early rounds of any other tournament.

The 29-year-old had showed little sign of injury when dispatching Facundo Bagnis 6-0 6-3 6-0 in the second round on Thursday. Nadal said the injury was preventing him from hitting his forehand properly.

"I will be working very hard to try and be ready for Wimbledon. I need a couple of weeks of immobilization," he said.

Murray speeds up his game

Andy Murray had been making life hard for himself at the French Open, needing all five sets to clear the first two rounds, but the Briton burst back to form on Friday when he easily overcame giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic 6-1 6-4 7-6 to reach the fourth round.

Andy Murray Roland Garros French Open Tennis
Murray put his five-set fetish to bed in the third roundImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Y. Valat

If the second seed is to break his duck and triumph on the Roland Garros clay for the first time a week on Sunday, he needs to stop tiring himself out in early rounds against supposed no-hopers.

A five-set comeback against 37-year-old Radek Stepanek was followed by a bruising encounter with French wildcard Mathias Bourgue. But against big server Karlovic, who is never going to really threaten on the red dust, Murray was straight out of the traps to avoid the errors of earlier in the week.

He will be joined in round four by Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic, who defeated Andrej Martin of Slovakia in straight sets. Defending champion Stan Wawrinka also made the next round in straight sets, 6-4 6-3 7-5 against Jeremy Chardy.

There was also a shock with former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova dumped out 6-0 6-7 6-0 by unheralded American Shelby Rogers. Other seeds Simona Halep,
Samantha Stosur and Garbine Muguruza won though.

German women eliminated

In the women's draw, the last German competitor Annika Beck went down 6-4 2-6 6-1 to Romanian 25th seed Irina-Camelia Begu.

"The performance really is sobering, of course we have other expectations. Many of them couldn't produce their best tennis, for a variety of reasons," Fed Cup women's coach Barbara Rittner told German sporst news agency SID. "But this isn't the end of the world either. The girls will put on a very different show in Wimbledon."

Of 17 to reach the singles competitions, one German hope for the last 16 remains; 19-year-old Alexander Zverev plays Austria's Dominic Thiem for a spot in the next round.

Tatjana Maria, who lost to France's Alize Cornet in the second round, plans to appeal her defeat. Maria accuses Cornet of gamesmanship, of calling her physio on to treat injuries unncecessarily. Cornet too two medical time-outs in the match, Maria alleges that to do so for cramps is abnormal.