The Spaniard reaches the first Grand Slam of the season without wins and with the difficult task of defending the title
Thinking of Rafa Nadal lifting his 23rd Grand Slam on January 29 is practically a chimera, an impossibility, but that has been the common thread of the man’s Manacor career. The harder something is, the easier Nadal makes it look.
The clearest example was a year ago when he lost two sets, a break against and 0-40 in favor of Daniil Medvedev. twice and won his second Australian Open, an eyesore since 2009.
That comeback means that Nadal is now the current champion and is responsible for retaining the title, one of the great “buts” of his career, which is that the Spaniard has never successfully defended a Grand Slam off the clay court of Roland Garros and he has only retained one hard court title, the Canadian Masters 1,000 in 2018 and 2019.
To this historical cyst we must add the bad sporting moment that the Spaniard is going through, with a single victory (against Casper Ruud in the ATP Finals) in the last seven games. From the US Open in August to mid-January, Nadal has won only one official match and started the year with two losses, both in favor and both lacking confidence.
The lack of wins and track time are the big questions for Nadal as he arrives in Melbourne, the second major in which he has the most wins (76). The debut isn’t going to help. The draw, very difficult, saw him in a first round duel with Jack Draper, a British left-hander ranked 40th in the rankings who has just made it to the semi-finals in Adelaide this week.
It will be the first time in his career that Nadal has faced such a high-ranking rival in his tournament debut. The prospects, should he get past Draper, aren’t much better. Frances Tiafoe, in the round of 16; Daniil Medvedev, in rooms; Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals and Novak Djokovic in the final. It’s one of the toughest roads Nadal has had in a Grand Slam, at least upfront, because then the final tables have little to do with what the predictions show.
At the other end of the field is Djokovic, with his clearest route and with the certainty that he has already won a title this year and is the most awarded in Melbourne with nine gimps. In addition, the Serb plays without the pressure of defending any loot from last year. He did not participate in the tournament when he was evicted for not being vaccinated against covid, so a win would earn him 2,000 points and pass absentee Carlos Alcaraz at number one.
The man from Belgrade has had problems with his hamstring in recent days, but it seems a minor ailment, judging by the fact that he endured a practice match against Nick Kyrgios on Friday. His first rival in the Rod Laver Arena will be Roberto Carballés. A total of twelve Spaniards are participating in the tournament, nine in the men’s box and four in the women’s box.
In addition to Nadal and Djokovic, favorites include Tsitsipas, who has won three semifinals on these courts, Medvedev, whose confidence plummeted after the final he lost a year ago but is always a danger on hard courts, Alexander Zverev, who returns after more out for half a year with an ankle injury, and Nick Kyrgios, who has given up defending his doubles title to finally get a great result on home soil. The man from Canberra has reached the final at Wimbledon and the quarter-finals at the last US Open, his two best results at major tournaments.
The ladies are looking for a successor to Ashleigh Barty, who retired last year and is the current champion. The big favorite is Iga Swiatek, winner of Roland Garros and US Open last season and comfortably number one in the world. Ons Jabeur, Jessica Pegula, Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari are her main rivals for the first Grand Slam of the year.
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.
