Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Mexico Open after suffering pain in the area of a hip injury that forced him to pull out of the Australian Open last month.

The Spanish top seed and 16-time grand slam winner was due to face countryman Feliciano Lopez in the tournament’s opening round in Acapulco.

Announcing the “sad news” on Facebook, he said that during training he had felt pain in the area where he had suffered the injury in Melbourne.

He added: “This morning we went to the hospital and did an MRI. We’ll have to do more tests to see the extent of the injury.

“For now the sad news is I will not be able to play here in Mexico before this wonderful audience who always treats me with so much affection.”

In January, Nadal suffered an injury to his inner right hip muscle during his quarter-final clash with Marin Cilic and was forced to withdraw two games into the final set.