Rafael Nadal Pulls Out of Wimbledon With Knee Injury

Rafael Nadal, the reigning Wimbledon champion, will not be returning to the All England Club to defend his title. The world No 1 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.

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 ahead of next week's grand slam.

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 No 2 seed, with the Swiss player promoted to the No 1 slot.

The Spaniard won this year's Australian Open, but his knee problems contributed to his failure to successfully defend his French Open title 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 later this year.