Nadal Withdrawal Highlights ATP Rotterdam Problems

"The upper part of my leg started to play up at the beginning of the third set," Nadal said of his loss over the weekend at Marseille. "I'd not played for four months because of an ankle injury, so the doctors advised me not to take any chances. I would love to have played here in Rotterdam, all the more so because I've not played for a long time. But I have to be completely fit first -- if I play, I want to give it all I have."

Nadal's withdrawal puts him on the sidelines with Roger Federer, Ivan Ljubicic, Marat Safin, Richard Gasquet, Martin Verkerk, Dominik Hrbaty, Gael Monfils and Feliciano Lopez as players that have withdrawn from the event.

Nikolay Davydenko and Dave Ferrer are Top 10 seeds, joined by fellow seeds Thomas Johansson of Sweden, Croatian Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, Czechs Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych, and France's Sebastien Grosjean.

Davydenko (vs. Jan Hernych) has a tough opener, with other first rounders of nominal interest including (8) Berdych vs. Taylor Dent, (5) Baby Goran vs. Finn Jarkko Nieminen, Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu in an all-French, (4) Johansson vs. the back-addled Tim Henman, and (7) Grosjean vs. Russian Igor Andreev.

Other un-seeds to watch are Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis and Brit Greg Rusedski.

Ljubicic possibly pulled from the event with the sour memory of last year, narrowly edged by Roger Federer 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(5) in the final.

Scheduled for Monday are Moodie vs. (Q) Simon, Vik vs. "Grinning" Greg Rusedski, Hernych vs. (2) Davydenko, (WC) "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter vs. (Q) Meffert, and Dent vs. (8) Berdych.