美国国家公共电台 NPR--Hip injury forced Rafael Nadal to pull out of this year's French Open

Hip¹ injury forced Rafael Nadal to pull out of this year's French Open

Transcript²

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Jon Wertheim, senior writer for Sports Illustrated³, who offers his perspective on defending champion Rafael Nadal missing the French Open this year.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

As fans head to the French Open this week to watch lesser-known players qualify for the main draw and to watch the legends practice, Rafael Nadal will not be there. He's recovering from a hip injury. So what does the French Open look like without him? Let's call Jon Wertheim, who's a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and an analyst⁴ at the Tennis Channel.

Hey there, Jon.

JON WERTHEIM: Hi, Steve. How are you?

INSKEEP: I'm OK. What's wrong with Nadal?

WERTHEIM: He has a hip injury he suffered in Australia. He's not played since. He is also almost 37 years old, which is, you know, almost dotage⁵ in tennis years. And what is a French Open without Nadal? It's like - you know, this is Prince without "Purple." This is going to be an interesting absence - big transition here.

INSKEEP: I guess we should say - is this right? - he has won the French Open 14 times, which must be the majority of the times he's ever played.

WERTHEIM: Not a typo. His match record - 112 and 3.

INSKEEP: Wow.

WERTHEIM: He's won this event more than any tennis player in history has ever won any other event. And you can imagine, with a player with 14 titles to his name absent, the field opens up.

INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about the field. Who would be a favorite then?

WERTHEIM: Novak Djokovic, who is tied with Nadal with 22 majors all-time, this sort of great duel⁶ is - you know, he's, on paper, the favorite, but he hasn't won a tournament since Australia. And he, too - he's 36 years old as well. So Carlos Alcaraz, the young Spaniard - sort of the seeds - these are the green shoots of Rafa. He just turned 20 years old. He's probably the favorite. He won the U.S. Open last year. He's a splendid player, but he's just coming off a loss to a player outside the top 100. So the big question is, does he look at this as sort of a one-off, or is his confidence dented⁷ headed into this big event?

INSKEEP: OK, so an injury may, in fact, open the way for some newer talent - possibly, anyway. What about on the women's side? I understand there's also a leading woman who will miss the French Open.

WERTHEIM: It's a similar type of story. Iga Swiatek of Poland - again, a splendid player. She's won this event twice before. She won the U.S. Open in the fall and didn't even play near her best tennis. But she, too, is coming off a defeat and an injury. But, you know, it's funny. Men tennis used to have these three stalwarts - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic - these three sort of reliable warhorses, and the women's field was wide-open. And now it's the men's field that's wide-open, and the women's field has their real favorite in Swiatek, provided she's fully⁸ healthy.

INSKEEP: What about Simona Halep? What happened to her?

WERTHEIM: Simona Halep is a former No. 1, a former French Open champion, and she, to great surprise, had a positive doping test. She hasn't played since. And recently this weekend, there was news that she had sort of a second violation⁹ of her biological passport. You know, essentially¹⁰, that's, de facto, a second violation. So it's very out of character in as much as we ever know these athletes. There's a lot of surprise, but it doesn't look good. And she's north of age 30, and two doping violations¹¹ does not bode¹² well for a comeback.

INSKEEP: I guess you better explain what a biological passport is for those who don't know.

WERTHEIM: In international athletics¹³, one way to try to crack down on doping was they had players essentially provide a biological passport of all their bio info and bio data. And if there were inconsistencies, if there was a spike¹⁴ in testosterone, that would be an indication of doping. And we haven't had many violations of this. Usually it's sort of a dirty doping test. Usually it's a violation. But in this case, it's these irregularities in the biological passport.

INSKEEP: Understood. Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated. Thanks so much.

WERTHEIM: Thanks. Any time.

1 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

4 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

5 dotage   

n.年老体衰；年老昏聩

参考例句：

• Even in his dotage,the Professor still sits on the committee.即便上了年纪，教授仍然是委员会的一员。
• Sarah moved back in with her father so that she could look after him in his dotage.萨拉搬回来与父亲同住，好在他年老时照顾他。

6 duel   

n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争

参考例句：

• The two teams are locked in a duel for first place.两个队为争夺第一名打得难解难分。
• Duroy was forced to challenge his disparager to duel.杜洛瓦不得不向诋毁他的人提出决斗。

7 dented   

v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等）

参考例句：

• The back of the car was badly dented in the collision. 汽车尾部被撞后严重凹陷。
• I'm afraid I've dented the car. 恐怕我把车子撞瘪了一些。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

9 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

10 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

11 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

12 bode   

v.预示

参考例句：

• These figures do not bode well for the company's future.这些数字显示出公司的前景不妙。
• His careful habits bode well for his future.他那认真的习惯预示著他会有好的前途。

13 athletics   

n.运动，体育，田径运动

参考例句：

• When I was at school I was always hopeless at athletics.我上学的时候体育十分糟糕。
• Our team tied with theirs in athletics.在田径比赛中，我们队与他们队旗鼓相当。

14 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。