In recent weeks, Rafael Nadal’s fans have regained color. The images that leaked onto social media showed the Spaniard in the middle of a training session. Better: he clearly seemed to be intensifying his efforts. Proof that his body was responding.
On November 15, his comments corroborated these impressions: “ Until now I didn’t know if I would play tennis again and now, honestly, I think sohe said. What has changed in the last few weeks is that now I know that I am going to play tennis again. The development is positive, big steps have been taken in recent times. »
On Friday, the veil was definitively lifted. In a video posted on his social networks, Nadal announced that he would make his return to competition at the ATP 250 in Brisbane (December 31-January 7). Before moving on to the Australian Open (January 14-28). All at 37 and a half years old. “After a year without competition, it’s time to come back and it will be in Brisbane,” he explained. Having fallen to 663rd place in the world, he says “don’t deserve this.”
These are the days and days of suffering that forced him to take an eleven-month work stoppage. When he injured his groin against the American Mackenzie McDonald on January 18, 2023, in the second round of the Australian Open, the Mallorcan did not imagine that his absence would last so long. He injured his iliopsoas (hip flexor muscle). Weeks of hardship begin. They force him to have a series of crimes, then to undergo an arthroscopy, on June 2, in Barcelona, which aims to “clean the fibrous and damaged parts of the tendon” of the psoas, as well as “strengthen it”. Convalescence is estimated at five months. Curtain on the 2023 season.
Comparable with the end of Federer’s career?
Even if the specter of early retirement is now over, Nadal has often repeated that 2024 could be his last season on the circuit. But the assertion did not prevent him from carefully preparing his return to business. According to Pedro Fullana, journalist for Spanish radio Cadena Ser, Nadal is expected to travel to Kuwait in early December to train at its academy and participate in some promotional events. He would then spend Christmas in Spain before flying to Australia. What to expect from this almost miraculous return? Mystery and gumballs. In recent years, the only comparative anchor point concerns the end of Roger Federer’s career. A glass half empty and/or half full.
When he ended his season on July 26, 2016, to have surgery on a stubborn right knee, the Swiss did not disappear too far. Six months later, he signed one of his masterpieces by winning the Australian Open, under the nose of… Nadal. Two Grand Slam titles will follow (Wimbledon 2017, Australia 2018). On February 19, 2018, he even became world number 1 again. At 36 years and ten months, the performance is gigantic. Downside: his absence only lasted one semester… Forced to have a second knee operation in February 2020, he will then pay a much heavier price: thirteen months of abstinence. And will never again be familiar with the summits.
With his eleven months away from the circuit, Nadal is more or less halfway between the Federer of 2016 and that of 2020. To tell the truth, no one yet knows what awaits him. Apart from the probably delirious reception from the Australian public, at the beginning of January, in Brisbane.
2023-12-01 23:24:23
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