Former world number one Roger Federer has pulled out of this week’s Madrid Open with a back injury.
The Swiss great travelled to the Spanish capital for the tournament but was unable to practice on Monday (May 2) and announced his withdrawal.
Federer, however, said he would be back for the Rome Masters next week.
“I arrived, I was OK and then I practiced on Saturday and hurt my back a little bit in practice and then stopped early. I was supposed to practice for two hours, had to stop after an hour 15 (minutes) and then well I was scheduled to practice yesterday and today but just don’t feel like I can practice so at this point I don’t want to take more chances as I know I’m not going to be fully ready for Wednesday,” said Federer at a news conference in Madrid.
“I’d rather play it safe and rest up now and get ready for Rome so that’s the schedule here now. So I’m very disappointed to say the least, I was hoping to play. I changed my schedule around, I practiced well in Switzerland before coming here so this is not really what I wanted to do, to come here and then do a press conference about pulling out but it’s been a tough year so I hope it gets better from here,” the world number three added.
Federer said that he has had this type of injury before and knows how to handle it.
“Before the Davis Cup finals it was the most extreme I probably ever had so this is normal back things I’ve had in the past which I guess is good because I know how to handle it,” he said.
