Rafael Nadal withdraws from Canadian Open, doubts remain about Cincinnati Masters

Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the National Bank Open presented by Rogers due to a left foot injury, the tournament announced Tuesday.

It is a recurrence of the injury that saw the Spaniard miss Wimbledon and the Olympics this summer. Nadal returned to action at the Citi Open in Washington last week, but fell in the third round to South Africa's Lloyd Harris, and admitted after that his foot was not at its best.

"I have had this issue for a couple of months, as people know," Nadal said. "Of course, it is not a happy situation after all the success that I had here in Canada, not being able to play this year after missing a year," Nadal said, as quoted on the ATP Tour website.

"At the end of the day, for me the most important thing is to enjoy playing tennis. Today, with this pain, I am not able to enjoy it, and I really don't believe that I have the chance to fight for the things that I really need to fight for."

It is unclear if Nadal returning to Spain is a sign that he could also miss the final warm up event before the US Open in Cincinnati. He admitted that things will become more clear in the next "couple of days" once the extent of the injury is known.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have both announced their decision to skip the Western & Southern Open. The former is still struggling with a recurring knee injury, while the latter admitted that he is yet to properly recover following his participation at the Tokyo Games.

"Dear fans, I wanted to share with you that I am taking a bit longer to recover and recuperate after quite a taxing journey from Australia to Tokyo. Sadly, that means I won't be ready to compete in Cincinnati this year so I'll turn my focus and attention to US Open," Djokovic wrote after deciding to skip the tournament in Cincinnati.