Rafael Nadal will head to the Middle East during the off-season ahead of his scheduled return to competitive tennis in Australia next year, according to a media report.
Pedro Fullana, who is a Mallorcan-based journalist for La Cadena SER, has obtained information about how the former world No.1 plans to start his comeback. Nadal is reportedly set to travel to Kuwait where he has his own academy and continue training there before returning home to Spain for Christmas.
Then the plan is that Nadal will head to Australia to play a warm-up event but it hasn’t been confirmed as to what one that will be. During the first week of the 2024 season, Brisbane will hold an ATP 250 tournament which will feature the likes of Hoger Rune and Andy Murray. The week after two more 250 events are being held in Adelaide and Auckland, New Zealand.
Should all go to plan, the 22-time Grand Slam winner will then play at the Australian Open which he won in 2009 and 2022. It will be his 19th main draw appearance at Melbourne Park where he has won 77 out of 93 matches played so far in his career.
Whilst this is the likely plan for Nadal’s return, it is yet to be officially confirmed by either him or a member of his team. The 36-year-old hasn’t played a Tour match since his second round defeat at the Australian Open in January due to a left hip injury. He was originally expecting to take an eight-week break but the recovery didn’t go to plan and he ended up having arthroscopic surgery.
Earlier this month, Nadal told reporters in Barcelona that his recovery was progressing well and confirmed his intention to play again amid speculation over his future in the sport.
“I’m well, training, and happy,” atptour.com quoted Nadal as saying on November 15th. “I’m at a good stage of my life. Until now I didn’t know if I would play tennis again someday, and now I genuinely believe I will. I’m still not ready to say when, but I’m able to train increasingly longer, and the progress is good.”
Nadal has won 92 ATP titles and earned more than $134M in prize money so far in his career. He is the first male player to have completed a career Grand Slam twice and win 2 Olympic gold medals.
