Rafael Nadal intends to take part in the 2024 Australian Open

Former world No. 1 and 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal is set to compete in the 2024 Australian Open. Earlier, the 37-year-old Spaniard, who has not played since January due to a serious injury, said that next season could be the last of his career.

The fact that Rafael Nadal plans to take part in the Australian Open next January was announced by the director of this tournament, Craig Tiley. “He hasn’t competed for most of this season, but a few days ago he confirmed to me that he will be back, which we are very happy about,” said the sports official, who noted that he is in contact with the team of the two-time Australian Open champion, who last won in Melbourne in 2022. However, according to the personal manager of tennis player Benito Perez Barbadillo, who was contacted by Reuters, the situation looks a little different. According to him, Nadal has indeed begun training, but the timing of the famous tennis player’s resumption of playing practice, and especially his tournament schedule for next year, has not yet been determined.

Despite this clarification, which smacks of reinsurance, Tiley’s information seems plausible. At the moment, the last tournament with the participation of Rafael Nadal is the Australian Open, where, being the second racket of the world, he lost in the second round to the American Mackenzie McDonald, who was 65th in the world ranking. The Spanish veteran was initially expected to have a break of approximately eight weeks, but in June he had to undergo surgery for a thigh muscle injury that did not respond to conservative treatment. It recently became known that Nadal is actively training, but specific dates for his return have not previously been announced. The tennis player himself, however, hinted that in November he could join his team at the decisive stage of the Davis Cup. However, after the Spanish team did not reach the quarterfinals of this tournament, this option automatically disappeared, so Nadal’s return at the Australian Open itself or at one of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) competitions preceding this tournament would be quite logical.

As for the goals that Rafael Nadal is pursuing with his return, they have not yet been determined. As of the end of last year, the Spaniard had won 22 Grand Slam titles, the most of anyone. However, during the course of the current season, the Serbian Novak Djokovic took first place in this indicator, who, after triumphs at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open, brought his number of victories in majors to 24. In May, during a press conference at which Nadal had to declare about the impossibility of defending last year’s Roland Garros title, he emphasized that, apparently, the next season will be his last. “You can’t endlessly demand more and more from your body. There comes a moment when it throws out a white flag and says it’s enough, even if your head wants to continue,” said the 14-time French Open winner, who turned 37 on June 3.

In general, it is still difficult to imagine that Nadal will actually make an attempt to catch up with Djokovic, who is one year younger than him. But in any case, at the moment the Spaniard with 255 rating points is only in 240th place in the world ranking, and at the end of this season he will have only 45 points left on his account and will drop into the seventh hundred. This is the uniqueness of the current situation in which the famous tennis player finds himself. Let us remember that throughout his career, Nadal took breaks of several months several times, but despite this, from April 2005 to March 2023 he never left the top ten.

Evgeniy Fedyakov