Tired Rafael Nadal decides to skip Basel Indoors

World number Rafael Nadal has decided to give next week’s Swiss indoors tournament a miss, citing “exhaustion” as the reason behind this decision.

The Spaniard, who deposed Novak Djokovic from the top spot in world rankings two weeks back, felt that he needed to take the week off to resuscitate his faltering fitness for the final leg of the season.

The Spaniard posted on Facebook: “Hi all, sorry to announce that I won’t travel to Basel in Switzerland but after very exhausting weeks I have to regroup my fitness and my body. I will do my best to come back to the Swiss Indoors next year.”

The Spaniard has had a punishing schedule since coming back from a long injury-layoff in May, and wished to give his battered knee some relief before he rounds up a successful 2013 season by playing in the Paris Masters next week and then travel to London for ATP World Tour Finals.

The last time Nadal played the Basel Indoors in 2004, and is yet to register a win in the tournament.