Rafa Nadal recently declared that he would shortly be retiring
On the day of his Indian Wells first-round match, Rafael Nadal withdrew from the BNP Paribas Open, stating on social media that he is not “ready to compete at the greatest level at such an important event.”
On X on Wednesday night, Rafael Nadal wrote, “Everyone knows how much I adore this area and how much I love to play here.” “I arrived to the desert really early to practice and try to get ready, and that’s another reason.”
I must regretfully announce my withdrawal from this incredible Indian Wells tournament.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion, who has only participated in 12 official matches since the US Open in 2022, was coming off a Sunday exhibition loss in The Netflix Slam against fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. After a hip ailment that necessitated surgery kept him out of play for almost the entire previous season, he made a brief comeback to the field for three games in early January before rupturing a muscle close to the hip. He was compelled to skip the Australian Open as a result, and he hasn’t played on tour since.
“You all know I took a test this weekend, and I have been working hard and preparing, but I don’t find myself ready to play at the greatest level at such a crucial tournament,” Nadal wrote in his article. “I can’t lie to the thousands of admirers and to myself—it’s not a simple decision—in fact, it’s a tough one. I know the competition will be a huge success, and I will miss you all very much.”
12d
Prior to the hard-court competition, the 37-year-old Rafael Nadal visited the California desert. He then traveled to Las Vegas to play Alcaraz in front of a sell-out audience of 9,489 spectators.
Tournament director Tommy Haas released a statement saying, “We are disappointed that Rafa is unable to play in the BNP Paribas Open, but we wish him continuous recuperation and hope he can be back in action again soon.” “We want to see him back in Indian Wells again in the future. He is one of the all-time fan favorites here.”
Lucky loser Sumit Nagal, who will play 2016 Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic on Thursday night, took Nadal’s spot in the draw.
Just a few moments remained before Diana Kasatkina took the court for her US Open 2023 fourth-round match. After displaying great play in her first three matches, she was now one win away from making her major league debut in the quarterfinals. However, the world No. 2 player Aryna Sabalenka stood in her way.
As Kasatkina went up to ESPN’s Rennae Stubbs for her pregame interview, she was aware that the world would be watching and that the stakes were high. When Stubbs inquired about her preparation for a night match, she paused.
“Well, to be honest,” Kasatkina said in a grave voice. “I believe this is the best way to promote my YouTube channel; we spent the entire day thinking about it yesterday.”
And with that, she turned to face the camera.
“Dudes, click the subscribe button. You can find it on YouTube if you just search for my last name. You can always watch YouTube if the game isn’t going to be interesting.
As it happened, the match wasn’t all that exciting; Kasatkina fell to Sabalenka 6-1, 6-3. However, the interview went viral and did draw a lot of attention to her partner Natalia Zabiiako’s “What the Vlog” YouTube channel. Natalia is a retired pairs figure skater who placed second in the 2018 Olympic team competition. And while the deed may have appeared like a blatant promotion for yet another aspiring influencer to many seeing the occasion, it may have been revolutionary to others acquainted with her backstory. or courageous. maybe even groundbreaking.
Although Kasatkina excels in her day job as a tennis player, her account contains more than just sponsored content, even with occasional shoutouts. In a period when few Russians feel comfortable coming out as gay, 26-year-old Kasatkina comes out as gay. Even though the “international LGBT movement” was recently declared a “extremist organization” by the Russian Supreme Court, Kasatkina and Zabiiako document their lives together by going on the WTA Tour and showing the world how unashamedly in love they are.
With 134 videos and over 41,000 followers, their channel has amassed over 100,000 views on multiple occasions. They garnered over 200,000 views for their US Open compilation episode.
This month, Kasatkina, who has also denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, told ESPN, “We’re getting a lot of response from Russia, from people who are struggling right now and who are in this awful position and cannot do anything about it.” And some of the folks claim that their only source of inspiration at the moment is our vlog. A person mentioned, “I recently discovered your channel and watched every video in just two days. It really helps me to live right now.” It’s endearing. It’s quite moving. It’s surprising, actually, because we didn’t anticipate receiving this response at first.
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