Rafael Nadal’s clay ‘roadmap’ revealed ahead of latest comeback and he could skip one big event
It appears it is all systems go for Rafael Nadal to at long last make his return to action with the tennis great set to compete at next week’s Barcelona Open.
The former world No 1 has not played competitive tennis since the Brisbane International in January as he was forced to withdraw from the Australian Open due to a muscle injury.
He made several attempted comebacks, but was skipped the Qatar Open, Indian Wells Open and this week’s Monte Carlo Masters.
In a recent interview with Movistar following his withdrawal from the Monte Carlo event, he admitted: “My body won’t let me. It’s getting difficult for me. It’s been a difficult year and a half, I’m trying every day. I have things to solve, and the reality is that at the moment I’m not being able to put myself in a position to compete. It’s hard.”
He added: “I don’t rule out anything, not even being in Barcelona or Madrid, but at the moment, I am not being able to get there due to physical problems.”
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But the 37-year-old has continued to hit the practice courts despite his problems and, according to Spain’s Cadena SER, he is set to travel to Barcelona on Wednesday with “roadmap” marked out for the clay-court season.
The 22-time Grand Slam winner is a 12-time champion of the Barcelona Open, but he missed the last two editions due to injury. He is on the entry list for the 2024 tournament despite sitting at No 646 in the ATP Rankings as he used his protected ranking of No 9 to gain entry.
The ATP 500 event will run from April 15-22 and if he comes through the tournament unscathed then he will head to the Spanish capital for the Madrid Open with the ATP Masters 1000 event getting underway on April 24.
The Italian Open follows the Madrid Open, but according to Pedro Fullana of SER Deportivos “his participation in Rome is less likely, and more so seeing that he would be competing for three weeks in a row (four if he goes to the Italian capital) after spending practically a year without doing so”.
If he does end up skipping the Italian Open, it will give him extra time to rest for Roland Garros and subsequently the Olympic Games in Paris.
The 2024 French Open starts on May 26 in Paris with the final scheduled for June 9 while the 2024 Paris Olympics will be held at the same venue with the tennis event running from July 27-August 4.
