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Rafael Nadal pulled out of next week’s hard-court tournament at Rotterdam, Netherlands, because of the bad back that bothered him during the Australian Open.

Nadal’s withdrawal from the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament was announced Thursday.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion wrote in a series of posts on Twitter that he “found a temporary solution that allowed me to play without pain in the second week” of the Australian Open, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets.

But, one of Nadal’s tweets said, “Once I got back to Spain I visited my doctor and together with my team they’ve advised not to play this upcoming week. I was really looking forward to coming back to Rotterdam and The Netherlands since it’s been a while (since) I played there.”

The second-ranked Nadal would have been seeded No. 1 in Rotterdam. Instead, third-ranked Daniil Medvedev, the runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open, will take the top spot in the seedings.

If Medvedev reaches the final in Rotterdam, he would replace Nadal at No. 2 in the rankings, according to the ATP Tour. That would allow Medvedev to become the first man other than Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer or Andy Murray to be in the ATP’s Top 2 since Lleyton Hewitt was second to Federer in July 2005.

Nadal cited the back issue when he sat out the ATP Cup team competition at Melbourne Park that preceded the Australian Open.

The 34-year-old Spaniard then was able to participate in the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, which began Feb. 8.

He entered the Australian Open with a chance to break his tie with Federer for the most major singles championships won by a man.

During that event, though, Nadal said his back prevented him from practicing properly for about three weeks and that he frequently needed to skip training sessions on the days he did not have matches.

After winning his first four outings, all in straight sets – and calling his opening set against Fabio Fognini in the fourth round “without a doubt” his “best level in the tournament” – Nadal took a two-set lead against Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals last week.

Nadal had been 223-1 in Grand Slam matches when leading two sets to none, but he faltered in the third-set tiebreaker with some uncharacteristically poor play and wound up losing to Tsitsipas 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-5.

Nadal was among the men on the entry list released Thursday for the Miami Open, which runs March 22 to April 4. Federer, who has been sidelined for more than a year after two knee operations, and Djokovic are also in the field for Miami.

Billie Jean King and the other members of the Original 9 who laid the groundwork for the women’s professional tour are the first group elected together to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, joining Lleyton Hewitt and Dennis Van der Meer in the Class of 2021.

In results announced Wednesday, Hewitt was the only one of five nominees in the Player Category who was voted in. He won Grand Slam singles titles at the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002, reached No. 1 in the ATP rankings and helped Australia win a pair of Davis Cup championships.

“When you are competing, you’re so focused on training and your results that week or that year, you don’t really look ahead to something like this,” Hewitt said. “But when that is all compiled up and deemed deserving of becoming a Hall of Famer, well, it’s just the ultimate recognition for a player, and I’m so honored.”

The other nominees in that category were Lisa Raymond, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Sergi Bruguera and Jonas Bjorkman.

Van der Meer, who died in 2019, advocated for a universal teaching method in tennis and was elected in the Contributor Category, as were the Original 9.

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of when King, elected to the Hall in 1987 for her accomplishments on the court, and eight other players – Peaches Bartkowicz, Rosie Casals, Judy Dalton, Julie Heldman, Kerry Melville Reid, Kristy Pigeon, Nancy Richey and Valerie Ziegenfuss – took a stand against the disparity in prize money between men and women in the sport at the time.

“I guess you could say we were women’s tennis suffragettes, in a way,” Pigeon said.

On Sept. 23, 1970, they all signed $1 contracts with World Tennis Magazine publisher Gladys Heldman to participate in the first women-only tennis tournament. That set the stage for the Virginia Slims circuit and eventually today’s WTA Tour.

Now all four Grand Slam tournaments offer equal prize money to women and men.

“There were three things we were really focused on achieving,” King said. “No. 1, that any girl born in this world would have a place to play and compete. No. 2, that women would be appreciated for our accomplishments, not just our looks. And No. 3, that women would finally be able to make a living playing professional tennis. Today, every time a woman gets a check for competing in a Grand Slam or the WTA Tour or gets to play in a pro tournament, you can trace it back to that day.”

The induction ceremony is scheduled for July 17 at the Hall in Newport, Rhode Island, and will also honor the former players voted in as the Class of 2020, Goran Ivanisevic and Conchita Martinez, because last year’s festivities were called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

There also will be virtual events marking the occasion in July.