Rafael Nadal, the reigning Wimbledon champion, will not defend his All England Club title. The world No1 has been forced to pull out of the tournament with tendinitis, becoming only the fourth man in the modern era not to defend his title at the All England Club.
"Not to play Wimbledon is one of the toughest decisions in my career but the decision was made easier because I don't feel ready to compete at 100%," said Nadal. "I don't feel like I'm ready to play in a tournament that is as important as Wimbledon."
Nadal, who announced his decision at Wimbledon this evening, lost his second exhibition match in consecutive days today, losing 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 10-3 to the No 19 seed Stanislav Wawrinka in the BNP Paribas Fortis Tennis Classic at the Hurlingham Club in Fulham in his final attempt to find his fitness before the fortnight.
"I tried everything," said Nadal. "I tried hard in the last week to get in the best condition and today was my last test. I didn't feel terrible but I was not at my best."
Nadal had been assigned into the same half of the draw as Great Britain's Andy Murray but Murray will now replace Roger Federer as the No2 seed, with the Swiss player promoted to the No1 slot.
The Spaniard won this year's Australian Open but his knee problems contributed to his failure to defend his French Open title successfully at Roland Garros. Nadal needs only the US Open title to complete a career grand slam and his decision to pull out of Wimbledon is aimed at giving him enough recuperation time to make a tilt at the title at Flushing Meadows in August.
Rafael Nadal at the 
Rafael Nadal, the 2008 Men's Singles winner at , announced today his withdrawal from the  because of a knee injury caused by his .  The formal announcement came after he had played the second of his warm-up matches.


On Thursday, whilst playing , Nadal had experienced issues with moving about the court.  Again, whilst playing  today, he had problems and lost the match.

He will be the first champion to not defend his Wimbledon championship since  pulled out in 2002.

As a result, fifth seed  takes Nadal's place in the first quarter of the draw, seventeenth seed  takes del Potro's place in the fifth quarter,  becomes the thirty-third seed and takes Blake's place in the fourth quarter, with his own previous spot now filled by lucky loser .

 was quoted on Tuesday (June 16) as saying "Nadal is always a dangerous player because he is the best in the world — but what happened in Paris and then the injury, I am picking Andy Murray or . … For Nadal to win five in a row (at the French Open) was a big goal this year. I am sure he was very, very disappointed when he went home after Paris. That defeat took him many, many days to get over. Nadal is saying he has got an injury, but he has to be fit at Wimbledon if he wants to go all the way, and I do not think he will go all the way this year."