MONACO (AP) — Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday because of a lingering injury, delaying the start of his clay-court tournament preparation ahead of the French Open and extending his absence that began in January.
The 37-year-old Nadal had hip surgery last summer and has played only three competitive matches — in Brisbane before skipping the Australian Open — this year.
Nadal has won the Monte Carlo Masters 11 times but announced on his social media accounts that he won't be ready to play when the tournament starts next week.
“My body simply won’t allow me,” the 22-time Grand Slam champion said in a statement.
The Spaniard didn't mention the French Open — he's won the clay-court major a record 14 times — in his statement. The Roland Garros tournament begins May 25.
In early March, Nadal played an exhibition match against Carlos Alcaraz in Las Vegas but days later pulled out of the Indian Wells tournament.
“You have no idea how hard this is for me to not be able to play these events,” he wrote. “The only thing I can do is to accept the situation and try to look at the immediate future keeping the excitement and will to play in order to give me a chance for things to get better.”
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
FILE - Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during his second round loss to Mackenzie McDonald of the U.S. at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Rafael Nadal pulled put of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday, April 4, 2024, because of a lingering injury, delaying the start of his clay-court tournament preparation ahead of the French Open and extending his absence that began in January. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a full pardon Thursday for a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice.
Abbott announced the pardon shortly after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles announced a unanimous recommendation that Daniel Perry be pardoned and have his firearms rights restored.
Perry had been in state prison on a 25-year sentence since his 2023 conviction in the killing of Garrett Foster, and was released shortly after the pardon, a prison spokeswoman said.
Perry, who is white, was working as a ride-share driver when his car approached a demonstration in Austin. Prosecutors said he could have driven away from the confrontation with Foster, a white Air Force veteran who witnesses said never raised his gun.
A jury convicted Perry of murder, but Abbott called it a case of self-defense.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney,” Abbott said.
A Republican in his third term, Abbott has typically issued pardons only for minor offenses, and he notably avoided a posthumous pardon recommendation for George Floyd for a 2004 drug arrest in Houston. It was Floyd's killing by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020 that set off national demonstrations.
Abbott ordered the board to review Perry’s case shortly after the trial, and said he would sign a pardon if recommended. Under Texas law, the governor cannot issue a pardon without a recommendation from the board, which the governor appoints.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza blasted the pardon as a “mockery of our legal system.”
“The board and the governor have put their politics over justice,” Garza said. “They should be ashamed of themselves. Their actions are contrary to the law and demonstrate that there are two classes of people in this state where some lives matter and some lives do not."
Abbott’s demand for a review of Perry’s case followed pressure from former Fox News star Tucker Carlson, who on national television had urged the governor to intervene after the sergeant was convicted at trial in April 2023. Perry was sentenced after prosecutors used his social media history and text messages to portray him as a racist who may commit violence again.
The sergeant’s defense attorneys argued that Foster did raise the rifle and that Perry had no choice but to shoot. Perry did not take the witness stand and jurors deliberated for two days before finding him guilty.
Perry acted in self-defense when confronted by an angry crowd and a person with an assault rifle, Perry attorney Clint Broden said after the pardon.
“The events of this case have always been tragic and, unfortunately, Garrett Foster lost his life,” Broden said. “Mr. Perry and his family thank the Board of Pardons and Parole for its careful review of the case and are grateful that the State of Texas has strong laws to allow its citizens to protect themselves.”
Foster's girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, was with Foster when he was killed. She called the pardon an act of “lawlessness.”
“With this pardon the governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and U.S. Air Force veteran and impugned that jury’s just verdict. He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his and different from those in power can be killed in this state with impunity,” Mitchell said.
The shooting set off fierce debate in 2020 amid the demonstrations sparked by Floyd's death, and Perry’s conviction three years later prompted outrage from prominent conservatives.
Before sentencing in the case, Carlson aired a broadcast calling the shooting an act of self-defense and criticizing Abbott for not coming on his show. The next day, Abbott said he believed Perry should not be punished and told Texas’ parole board to expedite a review of the conviction.
After the verdict but before Perry was sentenced, the court unsealed dozens of pages of text messages and social media posts that showed he had hostile views toward Black Lives Matter protests. In a comment on Facebook a month before the shooting, Perry wrote, “It is official I am a racist because I do not agree with people acting like animals at the zoo.”
Perry served in the Army for more than a decade. At trial, a forensic psychologist testified that he believed Perry has post-traumatic stress disorder from his deployment to Afghanistan and from being bullied as a child. At the time of the shooting, Perry was stationed at Fort Cavazos, then Fort Hood, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Austin.
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This story has been updated to correct that Perry's conviction was in 2023, not 2022.
FILE - Daniel Perry enters the courtroom at the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center, May 10, 2023, in Austin, Texas. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Thursday, May 16, 2024, recommended a full pardon for Perry, a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, Pool, File)
