Reigning U.S. Open men’s champion Rafael Nadal has confirmed his withdrawal from the Flushing Meadows event. Nadal cited the timing of the event being so close to the French Open and player safety as the motives for his withdrawal.

Nadal has joined World Number One Ash Barty and Nick Kyrgios as confirmed withdrawals from the U.S. Open in recent weeks. Nadal called on tennis authorities to give players more control over the timing of events in the revised calendar. “We know that the reduced tennis calendar is barbaric this year after 4 months stopped with no play,” Nadal said on Twitter.

After many thoughts I have decided not to play this year’s US Open. The situation is very complicated worldwide, the COVID-19 cases are increasing, it looks like we still don’t have control of it.

— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) August 4, 2020https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js