For several months, Rafael Nadal has been trying to temper expectations for his comeback, telling the world he has little idea if he’ll ever return to championship form or anything close to it.
On Sunday, Nadal showed the world why he’s so cautious. Nadal, 37, knows how fragile he is, announcing his withdrawal from the Australian Open on his social media channels after suffering a minor muscle tear during a conditioning match in Brisbane.
“Hello everyone, during the last match in Brisbane I had a small muscle problem that, as you know, worried me,” Nadal wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “When I arrived in Melbourne I had the opportunity to have an MRI and it was discovered that I had microtears in the muscle and not in the area where I injured the injury, which was great news. I’m not ready to play five sets at the highest level yet. I Flying back to Spain to see a doctor, get treatment and rest.”
What Nadal hinted at in several interactions with the media in Australia, and became abundantly clear on Sunday, is that the great results achieved in the first few weeks of the season on hard courts and after nearly a year away from the court were never Priorities. Nadal has won the French Open 14 times. He is known as the “King of Clay”. It wasn’t until April that tennis began to be played on clay, where he excels. He’s very focused on being at his best then, not now, and the French Open starting in late May, and possibly the Olympics at Roland Garros in late July.
“I have worked very hard this year for this comeback and, as I have always mentioned, my goal is to reach my best level in three months,” Nadal wrote on Sunday. “For me, not being able to play in front of an amazing Melbourne crowd is not bad news and we all remain optimistic about how the season will go. I really want to play in Australia and I have the opportunity A few games in and it makes me very happy and positive.”
Whether Nadal’s hips, knees or chronically injured foot will allow him to compete is anyone’s guess. Modern tennis, especially the brutal sport played by Nadal, is not kind to older players. Just ask Roger Federer and Andy Murray, or Novak Djokovic, who have spent many of their waking hours trying to stay fit but are now battling minor issues with their wrists.
But Nadal showed in three matches in Brisbane that he still Know how to play tennis. Say what you will about his opponents — a faded Dominic Thiem and two middle-of-the-pack Australians in Jason Kubler and Jordan Thompson — there were times when Nadal looked as crafty as ever, especially when as he sprints behind the ball deep in the fieldrt and finished with those running, angled flicks that just seemed to come from his hands.
(Patrick Hamilton/AFP via Getty Images)
He also lost three match points to Thompson in the second set and had to receive medical attention for discomfort near a hip that doctors had surgically repaired last year. After losing the game, Nadal said playing in his first Grand Slam match of the year will depend on how he feels the next morning and over the next few days. “After a year, it’s physically difficult to compete at the highest level.”
It’s a glass-half-full view of it all. If Nadal wins those match points, he may want to play Saturday’s semifinals or even Sunday’s final and risk a more serious injury. He played three tournaments and reminded himself that he could play good tennis in tight matches, at least in a few sets. Rest and recovery is needed now.
Whatever happens next on his playing schedule, there is no doubt that his focus is now on the clay courts of Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and Paris.
what else?
It’s only the first week of the season, so these games don’t mean anything.
We are just days away from one of the biggest events of the year, the Australian Open, so players have to be in shape immediately.
Only in tennis are both statements possible.
After the briefest of “off-seasons”, the Australian Open will begin on Sunday, January 14, meaning hundreds of players will be doing their best on the first day of the year (and the final days of 2023). Prepare as best you can.
The results of a correction week come with a warning from stock pickers – past performance is no indication of future success. Some of the top players didn’t compete at all.
That said, we’re looking at what’s happening in Australia, New Zealand and even Hong Kong. Here are some things that caught our attention.
Novak Djokovic Lost a game in Australia.
This doesn’t happen a lot. He has won the past four Australian Opens, ten in total, but lost to Australia’s Alex Demina 6-4, 6-4 in the mixed team federation cup you.
The losses are not alarming. It happens.
But Djokovic injured his right wrist and received medical attention throughout the Confederations Cup. No one knows how to take care of his body better than Djokovic. He has suffered serious injuries (hamstring and abdominal tears) in the past two Australian Opens and still won. Still, wrist injuries in tennis players can be a major red flag that flares up unpredictably at the worst moments, and there’s no way to hide them.
Like Nadal, Naomi Osaka Didn’t forget how to play tennis.
She won one match in Brisbane and lost another, but most importantly she played five intense sets, including two tiebreakers, and battled injuries, mental health and maternity leave. And after a year off, the first match gave Karolina Pliskova everything she could handle. .
When their ball comes off Osaka’s racket, it makes a different sound, a firecracker-like sound that serves as a quick reminder why tennis is better when Osaka plays. The way she bangs her left fist against her thigh when she’s getting ready to score… if that doesn’t get the juices flowing, it’s hard to say what will.
per svatek is in a good place.
Yes, the world No. 1 won a lot of games for Poland at the Fed Cup, often blitzing opponents in her usual fashion, but she also looked lighter and didn’t try to lift like Atlas. world champion.
She even joked about her least favorite thing to joke about – “Iga Bakery”. That’s the nickname the media gave her to all her 6-0 (bagels) and 6-1 (breadsticks) combinations. After she teamed up with Hubert Hurkacs to beat Spain 6-0, 6-0, she said she would consider hiring Hurkacs as one of her bakers.
coco goff It was off to the good start she had hoped for.
She traveled to Oakland to defend her season-opening title at the ASB Classic. Gauff won his last major at the U.S. Open. Starting a new season as a Grand Slam champion can be nerve-wracking.
Gauff won five games in a row, winning 10 of 11 sets to defend her title with one victory. Elena SvitolinaThankfully, he was healthy again in this grueling final, finishing 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3. Gauff was clearly eliminated at the WTA year-end finals in early November. She will miss next week’s Billie Jean King Cup final in Spain. After a short break, she looked refreshed and in high spirits.
She might have suffered a bad draw and lost in the first round of the Australian Open, but she couldn’t have started her season better.
Svitolina After the U.S. Open, she suffered a stress fracture in her ankle and became autistic.
Returning to hard court play was not ideal, which exacerbated the injury over the summer. But Svitolina seems to be playing and winning in New Zealand without any pain. That’s good news.
(Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Frances Tiafoe It was the first time in a while that he was playing without the guidance of Wayne Ferreira.
Tiafoe and Ferreira parted ways after spending the better part of four seasons together and reaching the 2022 U.S. Open semifinals.
Tiafoe, who finished in the top 10 for the first time last year but fell off in the final months of the season, said heading into 2024 he wanted to have more fun, play more aggressively and be less aggressive under the tutelage of Diego Moyano. Results focus.
“I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself for most of 2023,” he said. “I really wanted to do well. It was really hard for me. Still had a good year, but it’s not what I wanted to do in a big tournament.”
Tiafoe lost 1-1 to Chinese player JC Shang at the Hong Kong Open.
Which brings us to this: Pay close attention Shang Juncheng this season.
He’s only 18 years old and has already shown tremendous upside. Shang spent most of his tennis career at IMG Academy. (IMG coached China’s Li Na on her groundbreaking career.) He qualified for the Australian Open last year and won one match before losing to Tiafoe. He also qualified for the French Open.
In addition to defeating Tiafoe in Hong Kong, he also defeated the highly regarded Botic van de Zandschulp.still lose to Andrei RublevIn the semi-finals, they had a top finish in the first week.
Again, look at the nature of these results — early-season wins over veterans trying to find their rhythm — but when teenagers beat seasoned pros, it stands out.
Emma Raducanu Still alive and playing tennis again.
The 2021 U.S. Open champion underwent three surgeries last spring — on two wrists and one ankle. She set her expectations low and hoped others would do the same as she was essentially starting from scratch, ranking No. 301 in the world at the start of the year.
“I feel like I’m reborn,” she said.
She moved well and crushed some backhands in the opening game, ultimately winning the match. She was on the verge of a second win before Svitolina caught her in three sets.
She can now compete in the Australian Open main draw without having to go through qualifying, which may be a blessing in disguise. She may be able to capitalize on these tournaments, and she performed well the last time she played in the 2021 US Open Grand Slam qualifiers.
Like Nadal, Raducanu is simply hoping to stay healthy.
(Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Jelena Ostapenko, The fiery Latvian made no changes during the break.
Ostapenko was unhappy with referee Julie Kendry’s decision during her loss to Victoria Azarenka.
“You will never compete in my matches again,” Ostapenko complained to Kjandry. “You ruined my game.”
So it’s branded.
Some very high-profile players decided to skip the warm-up week entirely.
Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev About to enter the first Grand Slam of the year without any competitive adjustments. Those are three of the top four men and three players who played a lot of tennis last year, with Alcaraz and Sinner being two players still trying to figure out how to optimize their schedules.
Alcaraz also missed the Australian Open last season with a last-minute injury and certainly doesn’t want that to happen again.
Sinner reached the final of the season-ending ATP Finals and went on to win the Davis Cup with Italy.
Medvedev, well, he does a lot of unorthodox things when it comes to tennis, like hitting a forehand like someone trying to shoot a mosquito in the back seat of a Volkswagen Beetle.
May it always be so.
(Top photo: Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
