The long-awaited return of Rafa Nadal is getting closer and closer. The winner of 22 Grand Slam titles is in Brisbane, a tournament he has chosen for his return to the court after almost a year out due to injury and where he already has a date for his first match.
According to the newspaper As, The Spaniard will make his debut on January 2 in the singles team, although it will not be his first match, as he has also decided to play the doubles team with Marc Lópezcurrently a member of his technical team and with whom he won a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games.
Nadal and López will begin their journey in the doubles tournament on Sunday, December 31the first official day of the event in Australia, which ends on Sunday, January 7.
The tournament, which raised a lot of expectations due to the presence of Nadal, as well as other players of the stature of Holger RuneBen Shelton, Grigor Dimitrov or Andy Murray, will be broadcast by Movistar+, which will offer the tournament live through Movistar Deportes and its generalist channel Movistar Plus (dial 7), which will offer the matches of Balearic tennis player.
Regarding schedules, the Brisbane tournament offers a morning and afternoon sessionso the range of options is wide.
Sessions start at 2 am Spanish peninsular timewith three games, while the night session (one women’s game and one men’s game) will start at 09:30 am our time.
So, Nadal can play in the middle of the morning (it is almost impossible for him to play in the first turn) or in the middle of the morningUndoubtedly, the option desired by all fans in Spain and Europe, who will save themselves an important early morning on these important dates.
Despite currently being ranked number 663 in the ATP rankings, Nadal has had no problem with access in the draw of any tournament, because he will use the protected rank, that is, the classification he had at the time he declared himself on long-term leave, 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 attend an invitational 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.
Remember that Rafa Nadal cannot be seeded in any tournament, which depends on the luck of the draws. to not face off in the first round with the best players of 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.
Source: La Verdad
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