At the headquarters of the Queensland Tennis Center (Brisbane). This Tuesday, January 2, 2024 (Eurosport and Movistar+), Rafael Nadal He will end the longest break of his career to play his 1,289th game on the circuit. Almost a year after playing his last match, in the second round of the Australian Open (January 18, 2023), he will step on the court again to face a player from the qualifying phase. Before, this Sunday, the Spaniard will have played a doubles match with his friend and now coach Marc Lopez against the australians Max Purcell y Jordan Thompson.
????Nadal, acclaimed in Brisbane: “Being here is already a victory”
????Come back with things very clear. “For me it is impossible to think about winning tournaments today, but nothing is impossible”
???? pic.twitter.com/dZUIySNvdQ
— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) December 29, 2023
The 22-time Grand Slam champion returns ready to compete at the highest level in what may be his last season, as he announced after his psoas injury and hip surgery.
For me it is already a victory to be here. I just want to enjoy the challenge.”
His return will be, without a doubt, the most complicated of all he has ever experienced. Nadal is the first to lower expectations that have been shot on their return. “I haven’t competed in a year and that’s a lot. For me it’s already a victory to be here. I just want to feel good on the track, enjoy the challenge and be as competitive as I can. At this moment it is impossible to think about winning tournaments”, he highlighted before his debut in the Brisbane tournament.
???????????? HERE IT IS!
???? Rafael Nadal’s COMEBACK draw in Brisbane:
R1 – Qualifier
R2 – Karatsev/Kubler
QF – Humbert/Thompson
SF – Dimitrov/Etcheverry/Murray
F – Rune/Shelton/Korda/Baez pic.twitter.com/b1GyaaoEvJ— Olly ???????????? (@Olly_Tennis_) December 29, 2023
Nadal’s long absence has caused him to fall to world number 672, a position in which he has not been since his beginnings on the circuit at the age of 15 in 2001. In that time the former world number 1, 37 years old, has had other long losses of which has been reborn even more strongly:
2005: four months
A micro necrosis in the scaphoid of his left foot (syndrome of Mülelr Weiss) made him fear the end of his career in 2005 after winning the Madrid Masters 1,000 and the eleventh title that year. He was out for four months fearing the worst until, together with his inseparable doctor, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro They found the solution to the problem with special insoles that allowed him to compete again.
He reappeared in February 2006 at the Marseille indoor tournament where he reached the semifinals. He would later win the title in Dubai against Roger Federer and finished off a season with four more tournaments on the dirt tour: Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and his second Roland Garros.
2009: three months
Tendinitis in the knees He was bitter about a year that began by winning the Australian Open and where he suffered his first defeat at Roland Garros in the round of 16 against the Swede. Robin Soderling. He missed Wimbledon and did not reappear until the Canadian Masters 1,000 in August to reach the semifinals of the US Open, where he suffered a abdominal rupturefalling before Juan Martin del Potro.
2012: seven months
He suffered a rupture in a tendon in the left knee which forced him to resign from the London Olympic Games and the rest of the season. He would not reappear until the following year at the Viña del Mar tournament where he reached the final. From there he won the tournaments in Sao Paulo, Acapulco, Indian Wells, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros.
2014: three months
He injured his back in the final of the Australian Open that he lost to Stan Wawrinka. He stopped for three months after losing at Wimbledon (against Nick Kyrgios) to reappear in October at the Beijing tournament and subsequently resign from playing in the ATP Finals. In 2015 he dragged physical discomfort in the wrists in a season in which he did not win any tournament on the clay tour, falling in the semifinals of Roland Garros against Novak Djokovic.
2018: five months
an abdominal injury ante Marin Cilic in Australia opened a season of injuries that continued with a tendiditis and problems in the iliopsoas and right quadriceps. Despite all those problems, he won at Roland Garros and was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon and the US Open, when he retired against Del Potro, in the last match of the year that he would play for a right knee injury. He reappeared in 2019 to play in the Australian final that he lost to Novak Djokovic.
2021: SEVEN MONTHS
Injury to the scaphoid of the left foot He was tormented in a season in which after losing in the quarterfinals in Australia against Stefanos Tsitsipas he gave up playing IndianbWells and Miami to reappear in Monte Carlo, win the Barcelona and Rome tournaments and fall in the semifinals of Roland Garros against Novak Djokovic. He missed Wimbledon, the Tokyo Olympics and was out of action until the end of the season.
spectacular return
He reappeared in 2022 to win the Melbourne tournament and then his second Australian Open, after an epic final against Daniil Medvedev who came back in five sets. Nadal chained 21 consecutive victories until losing the Indian Wells final against Taylor Fritzafter get injured in the ribs in the semi-finals against Carlos Alcaraz. He returned to bite his 22nd Grand Slam at Roland Garros.
After the last casualty (more than 11 months) last season, in which he only played four games and failed to win a title for the first time since 2004, Nadal faces the most complicated return of the entire career. The Brisbane tournament will be the first contact for the Australian Open that will begin on January 15.
Then, while waiting for how his body is, the former number 1 (now world number 672) will decide his calendar in which he has marked in red Roland Garros and the Olympic Games which will be played at his home in Paris, where he has won 14 titles.
2023-12-30 13:14:34
#Nadal #faces #difficult #return
