Rafael Nadal recently confirmed that he would be able to make a return to competition in 2024 after spending the season sidelined by injury. The 37-year-old hasn’t played a match since January and, in May, he admitted that next year could be his last on the circuit before retiring. And it could be a difficult farewell tour for Nadal as Express Sport readers believe that the former world No 1 won’t be able to win any titles on his return.
Nadal has been out of action since picking up a psoas injury during his second-round loss at the Australian Open. He failed to make a comeback for the clay swing, instead ending his season early and announcing that he could use 2024 as something of a farewell tour. There have been plenty of question marks around if and when Nadal would make a comeback after he underwent arthroscopic surgery in June.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion spent the next few months taming expectations, conceding that there could even be a scenario where his body wouldn’t let him return to the sport. But Nadal recently confirmed that he would be able to make a comeback next year and is set to announce concrete plans for a return date and tournament soon.
It remains to be seen whether Nadal can be competitive in the long term or if he just comes out for a lap of honour. But his potential farewell season could be a bittersweet one as Express Sport readers are predicting that he won’t be able to win much when he returns. In a poll asking how many titles the Spaniard would collect in his comeback year, more than 1,400 said zero.
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It could mean a tough outing for Nadal as he returns to competition for the first time in at least a year. But the 37-year-old has defied expectations plenty of times in the past when returning from injury and could well do so again.
He ended his 2021 season early with a foot injury to undergo a procedure and didn’t know whether he’d be able to return to Australia in 2022. But he was ready to make his comeback in Melbourne and won the first 20 matches of the season, spanning the Melbourne ATP 250, the Australian Open and the Acapulco ATP 500.
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However, this time around Nadal has already conceded that he won’t be able to catch long-time rival Novak Djokovic in the Grand Slam race anymore. The Spaniard held the record of 22 men’s singles titles before this year but Djokovic now has 2024.
“I know it will be difficult to return to a very high level of tennis, but if I didn’t have the desire to be competitive again I wouldn’t have done the work I’ve done these months,” Nadal said at the Clinica del Tenis, per Marca. “I’m not going to win more Grand Slams than Novak Djokovic, but I’m going to have the opportunity to enjoy myself again.”
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