The smoke rising from Rafael Nadal’s training camp has kept the tennis world on its toes for more than a month, prompting predictions ranging from a triumphant spring on Paris clay to him never playing again after a second hip injury Participated in any official competition Australia January.
All that is clear is that the 22-time Grand Slam champion will prioritize the clay court season in Europe this spring. Nadal said the same thing in January when he returned from a year-long layoff following hip surgery.
Of course, he’s excited to be back competing in Australia, where he won his first Grand Slam of the year as recently as 2022, but he’s particularly focused on staying at his best, or at least as close to his best as possible at this time At this moment – there are still three months until the official start of the clay court championship.
That’s part of the reason he missed the Australian Open after suffering a minor tear in the muscle near his hip in his last three games back. Logic would suggest that Nadal would have waited until tennis returned to an organic surface that was far less taxing on the body, whereas an aging, injury-prone player like Nadal, who at 37 years old plays the most physical style of tennis, will have the best chance of staying healthy.
When he announced his withdrawal from the hard-court tournament in Doha this month on social media, few were surprised. The second sentence of the article caught some people off guard.
“I will focus on continuing to work hard and get ready for the Las Vegas exhibition and the amazing Indian Wells tournament,” Nadal wrote on Valentine’s Day.
It will be an exhibition match at MGM Resorts this weekend in Las Vegas against 20-year-old Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz, which will be streamed on Netflix, and then next week near Indian Wells, Calif. BNP Paribas Open.
Now this strikes some people as odd. Still, he had plenty of time to withdraw from those events and spend a few more weeks in Spain preparing for the clay-court tournament.
Then, last week, Novak Djokovic posted a photo of him and Nadal on the same flight as Nadal headed to the United States. “Vamos,” Djokovic wrote. The game goes on—at least in theory.
Great company on the way to the US 🇺🇸😎💪🎾 @rafaelnadal #idemooo #let’s go @atptour #tennisparadise pic.twitter.com/UDB13mp4Ux
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) February 23, 2024
But the question is why?
“If he’s healthy, he wants to play,” his longtime spokesman Benito Perez-Babadillo said Monday. “He’s a tennis player who wants to play in the biggest tournaments. He loves Indian Wells.”
As commentator and former player Patrick McEnroe noted during the Alcaraz matchup, Nadal often thrived on the slow hard courts of Indian Wells, where he won Three wins and reaching the finals two more times.
Injuries in exhibition matches are extremely rare, but exhibition matches and hard-court tournaments in March (even if Nadal loves Indian Wells as much), will improve his chances of being healthy enough to compete in the French Open title in May and June, where he has already 14 wins and a statue of him wielding a bullwhip with his forehand outside the main stadium? In recent years, Nadal shut himself down for about three weeks after Indian Wells and began honing his timing and physical fitness over two months of clay-court tennis, which is markedly different from hard-court tennis. different.
Welcome back, champion 👋
📷： @rafaelnadal | #tennisparadise pic.twitter.com/oVdoxv5JH0
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) February 26, 2024
The big thing in the room here is money.
It’s always uncomfortable to count other people’s money and ask for money that should be enough. Especially professional athletes, who are usually over 40 years old in their careers and have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle.
Despite this, Nadal has won more than $134 million in prize money during his more than 20-year career. He has collected tens of millions or more in sponsorship and appearance fees. The terms of his deal with MGM and MGM with Netflix were not disclosed, but considering what he and other players of his caliber make from competing in similar events, he will likely raise at least $1 million for the Alcaraz game
Nadal will not receive an appearance fee for the Indian Wells match as it is a mandatory match for healthy players. He had other motives. Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle, which owns the tournament, has become a friend and hosted Nadal at his private resort.
There, Nadal can pursue his other passion – golf. It is understood that he played 18 or even 36 holes a day while in the desert, and he has already played on courses in California.
(Premium Sports Photo/Getty Images)
It’s a good life. The question is whether he will risk a clay-court season when he may well have his best chance of winning a 23rd Grand Slam singles title. Nadal may try to deny that idea or any suggestion that he is some kind of clay-court specialist.
“I think it’s great,” said Paul Annacone, a longtime coach (Roger Federer, Taylor Fritz) and commentator. “He’s already training in California and acclimating. So the only question is if he’s not 100 percent ready. Then don’t go. But I don’t think he’s going to come if he’s not close to 100 percent ready for Indian Wells. To California.”
Days after withdrawing from Doha, Nadal posted a video of himself practicing a slow serve with the caption, “Work in progress.” More videos have emerged since his arrival in Indian Wells, but nothing approaching intense footage.
All of this only adds to the larger mystery of when Nadal might quit for good. Last year, shortly after hip surgery, he said 2024 would be his last season and serve as a kind of farewell tour as he visits the events and cities that have been most important to him in his career.
He then showed his old self in three games in Australia and got a taste of the competition he craved. Since then, he hasn’t committed to any hard timetable, insisting he’s taking it day by day.
The Olympic competition will be held this summer at Roland Garros, home of the French Open. There was speculation that he might leave. He subsequently signed an agreement with the Saudi Tennis Federation as an ambassador, and in October joined Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alkaraz, Jannik Sinner and Holger ·Run participated in an exhibition match in Riyadh. This setup seems like an odd choice for his final game.
The Davis Cup final will be held in Spain a month later. Maybe then? That is, assuming he can do it without another serious injury.
For now, for better or worse, he’s got a big payday in Las Vegas and playing hard-court tournaments (and a lot of golf) in the California desert.
(Top photo: William West/AFP via Getty Images)
