Tennis: Rafael Nadal announces comeback, set to return playing in Australia | Tennis News

Following a year-long absence from professional tennis to deal with the several injury issues that have plagued the twilight of his career, 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal announced on Friday that he will return to the tennis tour at the Brisbane International – a warm-up event ahead of this year’s Australian Open – which kicks off on 31st December.
“After a year away from competition, it’s time to come back,” Nadal said in a video he posted on his social media accounts. “It will be in Brisbane, the first week of January. I’ll see you there.”

🎧👀💪🏻😉 pic.twitter.com/iH7NvsQGMT
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) December 1, 2023
Last month, Craig Tiley, chief executive of the Australian Open, had dropped the first hint of Nadal’s comeback potentially taking flight Down Under, and last week reiterated his confidence that Nadal is likely to play in Melbourne.
The Spaniard is a two-time Australian Open winner.
The first of those titles came in 2009 and the other in 2022 when he defeated Daniil Medvedev in a memorable final in which he was forced to fight back from a two-set deficit.
This summer, in a press conference in which he announced his absence from the French Open and a prolonged injury layoff, Nadal had said that he wishes for 2024 to be his final year on the competitive tennis tour.
In light of that fact, Nadal’s desire to be at each of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments would be clear, but given the hefty toll that multiple injuries have taken on his body, for him to be at a competitive level might be a stretch, especially as early as January.Nadal’s last competitive match was in Melbourne itself – a pain-ridden second round defeat to America’s Mackenzie McDonald.
It was a serious hip issue that plagued him that day, but before that an abdominal injury had led him to withdraw from a Wimbledon semifinal, and his chronic foot issue – from which he has suffered since 2005 – flared up and required him to take pain-numbing injections on his way to the 2022 French Open title.
In between all of that, there was a seemingly endless l of sprains, minor tears, and even a cracked rib.
While it may be too soon for Nadal to look at the Australia Open with clear title-winning ambitions, the goal for the rest of the year will be clearly in sight – another attempt to extend his fabled record of 14 singles championships at the French Open, and a shot at another Olympics medal, the event for which will also be held at Roland Garros in Paris.The road to all of that, however, begins in Brisbane.