I think the REAL question now is if some of the predictions over the last 5 years will come true.. Will Nadal stop to be a force on any surface other than clay? With this news, it means that it has to be more than tendinitis and probably a worse injury on both his knees (specially the left one).
Many people, including me, said about 3-4 years ago that Nadal wouldn't be a player who lasted much on tour, even less to be a force in majors after his 27 years of age, mostly due to his game philosophy and his never say die attitude with bad knees which takes a toll to the body.
Have Nadal's knees had enough of this gruelling type of game and will start to see a Nadal declining on any surface apart from clay? Or will he recover and can play past his 30s? I for one don't see that happening unfortunately.
Either way, its a sad day for tennis and wish all the best to Nadal. Let's hope I am wrong and it is just a severe case of "JUST" tendinitis.
The problem is, as time goes by, I don't see that happening and his body isn't turning any younger...
and the question everybody is asking themselves is: How far can Nadal keep this up?
I do agree with Shankar on this. Be it that Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Monte Carlo, Madrid ARE big tournaments, there was no need for Nadal to play DOUBLES, he pushed his body to the limits.. One thing is to play singles and rest for matches and the other is to play both formats (singles and doubles) and expect everything would be just fine just because its clay... If he were to skip Barcelona and play only singles on Masters 1000 events, then that would be another story.. but NO, he decided to play all formats, he only missed out on mix-doubles... LOL...Terrible scheduling on his part.
Anyway, Shank, let's see how he holds up and how will he return to courts. But unless he changes all of his scheduling, he won't last long to this demanding tour and you will have to change your predictions about how many GSs he will end up with.