Rafael Nadal withdraws from French Open with wrist injury

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14-time Grand Slam singles champion RafaelNadal said Fridayhe is pulling out of the French Open with a wrist injury.

He announced his withdrawal the day before he would have been scheduled to play in the third round.

The left-handed Spaniard wore a blue brace on his wrist during what he called "one of the toughest press conferences in my career."

Nadalsaid that he would not even have tried to compete at any other tournament with the injury, "but it"s the most important event of the year for me."

This comes just one day after Nadal achieved some impressive career milestones.

Nadal - the four-seed at this year"s French Open -earned the 200th Grand Slam victory of his career on Thursday, something only seven other men have done.

At the outset against 99th-ranked Facundo Bagnis of Argentina, a fellow lefty,Nadalwas a little tentative and dropped 10 of the first 13 points to trail 0-2, love-30.

"True,"Nadalacknowledged, "I started slow."

Didn"t take the nine-time French Open champion long to get going, though. He reeled off 14 of 15 games to seize control along the way to winning 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.

Nadalimproved to 200-30 in majors, a winning percentage of .870, and 72-2 at Roland Garros.

Also on Thursday, No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic became the seventh man with 50 match wins in the French Open, moving to the third round by overcoming 42 unforced errors on a windswept afternoon to beat 161st-ranked qualifier Steve Darcis of Belgium 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.

Mets" 30th anniversary celebration

On the ladies" side, first it was Serena Williams"turn to overpower an opponent 6-2, 6-1 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Shortly after that was over Thursday, her older sister Venus entered the very same French Open arena and won by the very same score.

A bit like old times, n"est-ce pas?

"It"s a little surreal sometimes, because it has been so long. They"ve both been out here almost 20 years," said their sister, Isha Price, who was in the stands for both matches.

"It was nice to have them play back-to-back and not have to move," Price added with a laugh. "It"s so interesting that their scoreline was the same. It was really nice to be there for that."

The sisters No. 1-seeded Serena, No. 9 Venus even got a chance to cross paths and catch up briefly between their nearly identical matches. Serena faced one break point; Venus zero. Serena compiled a 31-6 edge in winners; Venus"s margin was 22-6. Serena made 17 unforced errors; Venus 15.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Todderick Hunt may be reached atthunt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@TodderickHunt.

Source: http://www.nj.com/sports/index.ssf/2016/05/rafael_nadal_withdraws_from_french_open_with_wrist.html