Joke about Nadal injury creates confusion during virtual tourney
For a short time, it appeared Rafael Nadal had become the first superstar in sports to suffer a video game-related injury during the coronavirus lockdown.
The 19-time Grand Slam winner was scheduled to take on YouTuber and gamer DjMaRiiO as part of a virtual Madrid Open charity event Monday, but tournament director Feliciano Lopez stated that a back injury during the event had forced Nadal to postpone the match.
"We had Rafa, but I think he had an issue on his back today, I think he was injured, so he requested to play (again) tomorrow," Lopez said, according to Eurosport's Carrie Dunn.
However, Lopez later clarified that he was kidding about the injury.
Guys, I was joking, of course... I said Rafa had a back injury from the pressure of playing on the PS4. We might need some sense of humour please!By the way he has shown great skills playing virtual tennis 🎾😀 pic.twitter.com/bDTSbNtj2o
— Feliciano López (@feliciano_lopez) April 27, 2020
Nadal beat Canada's Denis Shapovalov 4-3 (3) in the group stage earlier Monday.
The virtual tournament is running from April 27-30 and taking place at the Manolo Santana Stadium in the Tennis World Tour video game.
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