Nadal returns two months later

Rafa Nadal’s competitive break comes to an end. The Balearic tennis player stopped his season, after the defeat in the quarterfinals of the US Open, due to his close paternity. He put the sport aside to focus on the birth of his first child and only made a break along the way to accompany his friend Roger Federer in his farewell at the Laver Cup. Once he has become a father, Nadal has taken down his racket and, after several training sessions at his academy in Manacor, he has traveled to Paris, to play one of the two tournaments he has left before closing the season.

The Masters 1,000 in Paris-Bercy, one of the two that Nadal has never won, along with Miami, is the penultimate stop for the Balearic Islands, before playing the ATP Finals in Turin and going on tour to South America with Casper Ruud to play various exhibits. Nadal arrives in the French capital as number two in the world, 880 points behind Carlos Alcaraz, who also plays in Paris, and with the possibility of beating Muciano in the remainder of the campaign. There are 2,500 points at stake between Paris (1,000) and Turin (1,500) and Nadal does not defend anything from 2021 and Alcaraz only 90. While Alcaraz seeks to finish the year for the first time as the best in the world, for Nadal it would be the sixth time, which would place him at the same level as Pete Sampras and one of the seven that Novak Djokovic has, the sole leader of this statistic. Nadal will debut on Wednesday against the winner of the match between Roberto Bautista and Tommy Paul, and could meet Denis Shapovalov or Pablo Carreño in the round of 16, Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals, and Djokovic, who has won here six times, in the semifinals.

Alcaraz enters Paris-Bercy as the number one in the world, this being the third ATP tournament in which he wears it, after Astana and Basel. The memory of the Swiss city is bitter, after winning three games in a row for the first time since their conquest of the US Open, but with a tough and wide defeat against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semifinals. The Canadian, who also beat him in the Davis Cup, has accumulated thirteen wins in a row and three consecutive titles, making him one of the most dangerous tennis players at the moment.

Alcaraz also debuts on Wednesday

Alcaraz will also make his debut on Wednesday, against Yoshihito Nishioka, who beat Aslan Karastsev in straight sets. The man who most threatens Alcaraz’s team is Daniil Medvedev, who unseated Casper Ruud on Monday as the third best tennis player in the world and who could be seen with the Murcian in the semifinals. The Russian, after his withdrawal in the semifinals of Astana, did not fail in Vienna and achieved the fifteenth title of his career. The Russian defends 1,590 points between now and the end of the campaign and his chances of returning to number one are slim. He would need to win Paris-Bercy and finish the Turin masters tournament undefeated.

Yes, there are two places at stake for the jewel in the crown of the ATP. Alcaraz, Nadal, Ruud, Medvedev, Djokovic and Tsitsipas have already qualified for the Masters Cup and Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev, Hubert Hurkacz and Taylor Fritz will play in Paris for the last two spots.

Many eyes are also on Djokovic, who has nine consecutive wins that brought him the titles in Tel Aviv and Astana and who has had the strangest season of his career. The Serbian appears in Paris as the sixth seed and will debut against Diego Schwartzman or Maxime Cressy.