Miami:
Rafael Nadal’s bid to win the ATP Miami Open title for the first time suffered a setback yesterday when he failed to finish a workout after an ankle injury scare.
A spokesman for the Spanish star tweeted: “RafaelNadal felt earlier today and didn’t finish the practice. It looks like his ankle is OK however we will see how things evolve.”
Second seed Nadal, a four-time Miami runner-up, is coming off a run to the quarter-finals at Indian Wells, where he lost to Canada’s Milos Raonic.
World number three Nadal will have a first-round bye in this week’s start to the Masters Series event and open against the winner between Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky and Spain’s Nicolas Almagro, with ninth-ranked Czech Tomas Berdych a potential quarter-final foe.
Nadal lost to current world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the 2011 and 2014 Miami finals, Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko in the 2008 championship match and Swiss star Roger Federer in the 2005 title showdown.
