Nadal awaits rival on his return to competition in Australia

The Spanish Rafael Nadal (1) could debut in the ATP 250 tournament in Melbourne against the American Marcos Giron in the event that he passes the first round against a player from the previous phase.

Nadal, who played his last official competition match in August 2021, never previously faced the Californian tennis player, who is looking forward to a new season after entering the top-60 for the first time in his career in 2021.

The Spanish, who entered the main draw as the first seed, would face the German Dominik Koepfer in a hypothetical quarterfinal (7), in the semifinals against the Belgian David Goffin (4) or with the Australian Nick Kyrgios and in the final could see the faces with his training partner this Sunday morning, the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (3), or the American Reilly Opelka (2).

The preparatory tournament for the Australian Open will start this Monday and Nadal will make his debut possibly on Wednesday against the winner of the duel between Giron and the ranked player from the previous one.

Nadal will also increase his preparation with more matches, since He will compete in the doubles draw of the ATP 250 in Melbourne forming a couple with the Spanish Jaume Munar, with whom he has trained these days in Melbourne.

Demanding training with Dimitrov to prepare for the return

The Balearic Rafael Nadal (6) completed a new training session with the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (28) waiting to meet his first rival in the 250 category tournament that will start this Monday in Melbourne Park and that will serve as preparation for the Australian Open.

Nadal, who landed in the oceanic country this Friday after recovering from his positive for Covid-19, finished his third session on the Rod Laver runway at the highest intensity after playing a practice set against which he will be one of his main threats in the ATP 250 that will be played in the same facilities as the first ‘major’ of the season.

The last competition match played by the champion of 20 majors was the defeat in the Washington tournament against the South African Lloyd Harris last August.

After the stumble, the Mallorcan decided to undergo surgery to find a new solution to his scaphoid problems of the left foot that has been dragging since 2005.

His first acid test was the match he played in December at the Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament against Britain’s Andy Murray, as well as the match against Canadian Dennis Shapovalov.

Nadal accumulated two defeats but, as he himself assured, the feelings were not bad after so much time of inactivity.

After his arrival in Spain, the tennis player himself confirmed his positive for Covid-19, as well as several members of his team, for which he had to isolate himself for a period of ten days before flying to the capital of the state of Victoria (Australia).

His positive is past water after completing three workouts at the highest intensity and this afternoon he will know who will be his first obstacle on his way to reach the title in one of the preparatory championships for the first big date of the season.