Nadal cuts short comeback after injury flares up

World number two Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Mexican Open on Tuesday, cutting short his comeback from an injury when his ailing right hip flared up again.

“My goal and hope was to play in this tournament. Unfortunately, in my last training session yesterday, I felt a sharp pain in my leg again,” the 31-year-old Spanish star said hours before what was to have been his opening match of the ATP Tourevent in Acapulco.

Nadal, favoured to win the tournament and champion here in 2005 and 2013, had been due to face fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.“I took all the appropriate stepsto arrive at the tournament in form. I went to Cozumel first, toadapt (to the climate),” he told reporters.“But yesterday, in my last training session before the tournament, during one movement I felt a sharp pain again in the same area where I had the problem in Australia.”Nadal limped out of the quarter-finals at the Australian Open on January 23.

He has since lost his number one ranking to Roger Federer.Nadal said doctors in Mexico warned him not to play for fear of aggravating the injury.“I still don’t know what it is, because we don’t know. It seems it’s not as bad as what Ihad at the Australian Open,” he said.“Now, my main goal is to find out the extent of the injury.”This marks the sixth tournament in a row that Nadalhas pulled out of or retired from — the Australian Open, Brisbane, London, Paris, Basel and Acapulco.