Rafa Nadal leaves for Australia at the beginning of the week, where his great goal of the last few months will end: the return to playing tennis after almost a year due to injury. The former world number 1 will return to competition at the Brisbane tournament, which starts on December 31 and where he will enter by invitation, without having to use a protected ranking card.
We don’t know yet what day he will debut in the tournament since the first round was held over three days (December 31, January 1 and 2), but we do know how we can follow him on television. Is to Movistar+, which will offer the tournament live through Movistar Deportes and its general channel Movistar Plus (dial 7), which will offer the matches of the Balearic tennis players.
As for schedules, the Brisbane tournament offers a morning and afternoon session, so the range of options is wide.
Sessions start at 2 am Spanish peninsular timewith three parties, while the evening session (one female and one male match) It starts at 09:30 in the morning it’s our time
So, Nadal can play in the middle of the morning (almost impossible for him to play on the first turn) or mid morningUndoubtedly, the option desired by all fans in Spain and Europe, which will save an important early morning on these important dates.
Despite currently being in position number 663 in the ATP rankingNadal will not have a problem accessing the draw of any tournament, because he will use the protected ranking, that is, the classification he had at the time he declared himself on long-term vacation, in his case, number 9.
He will be eligible for his first nine contests or nine months if he doesn’t reach that number. however, in Brisbane he will not ‘spend’ any of his nine bullets as he will be attending by invitation of a tournament with a very interesting draw.
Holger Rune (8) will start as the first seed, with Grigor Dimitrov (14), Ben Shelton (17) and Ugo Humbert (20) as rivals with more options.
It should be noted that Rafa Nadal cannot be seeded in any tournament, which will depend on the luck of the draws to avoid facing the first round with the best players from each tournament.
Nadal’s last appearance in Brisbane dates back to 2017, when he reached the quarterfinals. He beat Alexander Dolgopolov and Mischa Zverev, lost to Milos Raonic. He will later become a finalist at the Australian Open, which has always been his priority and where this year he will be looking to test his recovery against the world’s best.
Brisbane Tournament
Official list of participants
Holger Rune – No.8
Grigor Dimitrov – No.14
Ben Shelton – No.17
Ugo Humbert – No.20
Sebastian Korda – No. 24
Sebastian Baez – No. 28
Tomas Martin Etcheverry – No.30
Reilly Opelka – No.33 PR
Aslan Karatsev – No. 35
Roman Safiullin – No.39
Alexei Popyrin – No.40
Andy Murray – No.42
Matteo Arnaldi – No. 44
Max Purcell – No.45
Yoshihito Nishioka – No.47
Alexander Shevchenko – No.48
Yannick Hanfmann – No.51
JJ Wolf – No.53
Jordan Thompson – No.55
Daniel Altmaier – No.56
Marton Fucsovics – No.59
Marcos Giron – No. 60
Rafael Nadal (WC)
The
*There are nine other tennis players missing, who will appear in the preliminary round and the other invitations available in the tournament
Source: La Verdad
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