Spanish alternatives to Nadal are scarce in Australia due to the various setbacks
Spanish tennis was hit hard by the loss of Carlos Alcaraz in Melbourne. The Murcian was set to compete in a Grand Slam for the first time as number one and US Open champion, but an injury to his right leg, in one of the last training sessions before moving to Australia, ended his roadmap and forced him to to decline his participation in the first major of the year. Alcaraz will make another appearance in the Buenos Aires tournament on February 11, to play against Rio de Janeiro and Acapulco later. The drop in Australia means it will almost certainly lose number one after 20 weeks.
Neither will Paula Badosa be in Australia. The Catalan suffered a broken right thigh that will keep her off track for several weeks and will be unable to defend the round of 16 she won at Melbourne Park last year. The top-seeded Spaniard has been left out of the Australian Open due to a last-minute injury, as she was injured in the quarter-final in Adelaide against Beatriz Haddad Maia and was therefore unable to play the first semi-finals of the year.
Garbiñe Muguruza will be in Melbourne, although she is not one of the favorites on Australian soil on her own. The Spaniard has dropped to 58th in the table and has won four games on tour since July. He started 2023 with two defeats, especially painful against Bianca Andreescu after leading 6-0 and 5-1. It’s hard to imagine a Muguruza doing well on some of the tracks where she played the final in 2020, but she also warns, “I’m good at switching quickly.”
The winner of two Grand Slams can never be ruled out in this kind of tournament, but the truth is that her last quarters date back to that Australian Open in 2020. Since then, she has only made two rounds of 16. She starts her journey in the tournament against the Belgian Elise Mertens, whom she dominates 2-0 in the game.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
