Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni believes that the 22-time Grand Slam champion won’t disappoint when he returns to tennis, even though it will be his most difficult comeback yet. The Spaniard is set to play his first tournament in a year at the upcoming Brisbane International. And if Toni’s words are anything to go by, Nadal won’t let his fans down when it comes to challenging Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
Nadal recently announced that he would be making his highly-anticipated return at the ATP 250 event in Brisbane which begins on December 31. The 37-year-old has been sidelined since he got injured during the Australian Open back in January and later underwent arthroscopic surgery in June.
After a few successul months on the practice court, the former world No 1 is now heading to his academy in Kuwait for one last big training block with Arthur Fils before heading home for Christmas and then flying to Australia. With his comeback looming, Nadal’s uncle and former coach has shared his expectations.
“Very excited to see @rafaelnadal compete again,” Toni wrote on Instagram “Even knowing this time will be ‘the hardest one yet’, I have great faith in him and believe he won’t disappoint.” It comes as something of a warning to Nadal’s big rivals, with his uncle backing him to challenge the top players once again.
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The 37-year-old recently explained that the time was right to make his return and is expected to use the Brisbane International to test his match fitness before likely competing at the Australian Open. “After one year outside of the Tour, I think it’s the right moment to be back,” Nadal explained.
“I have been working hard and feeling much better the last couple of weeks, so I feel ready to announce that I will be back in Brisbane the first week of the season.” But tennis fans will be made to wait to see Nadal take on Djokovic or Alcaraz again.
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The world No 1 is competing in the United Cup instead of the Brisbane event while Alcaraz isn’t playing any warm-up tournaments before the Australian Open. He is instead expected to play a couple of exhibition matches in the week leading up to the first Grand Slam of the season.
But even Djokovic is relishing the chance to face his long-time rival one last time. Speaking after Nadal announced that he would be able to return to competition, the 24-time Major winner said: “I think it would be nice for the sport to have at least one more match between Nadal and me. That’s the biggest rivalry in terms of the amount of matches played that this sport ever had. Hopefully that can happen.”
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