Rafael Nadal: Alex Corretja 'waiting desperately' for star's return from injury but not expecting news until December

ByJames Walker-Roberts

Published 18/10/2023 at 11:05 GMT

Will Rafael Nadal return for the 2024 Australian Open? Tournament CEO Craig Tiley said last week that the 22-time Grand Slam champion will be back in Melbourne, although Nadal did not explicitly confirm that was the case. Eurosport expert Alex Corretja has given his view on Nadal's potential return date to tennis and what questions the Spaniard will be asking himself about his condition.

Alex Corretja says tennis is “waiting desperately” for Rafael Nadal’s return but does not expect any concrete news until at least the middle of December.

Nadal, 37, has not played since losing in the second round of the Australian Open in January. He underwent hip surgery in the summer and has said that 2024 could be his last season on tour.

Australian Open CEO Craig Tiley announced last week that Nadal will play at the Grand Slam in January.

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However, Nadal appeared to water down that certainty, posting on X that he appreciated the “vote of confidence from the Australian Open” and is “working hard to come back asap".

His representative, Benito Perez-Barbadillo, said no date is yet confirmed for a comeback.

“After taking a while from not playing tennis, I was thinking that Rafa will be the one announcing when he's going to be back,” Corretja told Eurosport.

“But the announcement was a bit like a wrong foot for everyone.

“At the beginning, I thought maybe that's something that they talked to each other about and planned it like this.

“But then after I saw what Rafa said I felt like ‘okay, they need to be very careful what they say about Rafa's news’. Because it's still almost three months away from the Australian Open, lots of things can happen and I don't think it's necessary to put the whole pressure on yourself like ‘oh yeah, I’m going to be there’.

“Because you don't know how you're going to react, how your body is going to feel after you start playing sets, after you do some more fitness. After you play three hours one day and maybe how is your body for the next day?

"And this is pretty much what you need to do before you go into a Grand Slam, especially after such a long time without playing.”

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Nadal won the Australian Open in 2022 after returning from an injury absence.

However, he has curbed any expectations of winning a Grand Slam title next year as he looks to make his comeback.

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Corretja thinks Nadal might reveal his plans for the start of the season in December when there will be a month to go until the 2024 Australian Open in Melbourne.

"Hopefully, he's going to announce he's coming back," Corretja said.

“But I'm not expecting that before the middle of December, maybe because that would be pretty much the time that I believe that he will know if he is ready to start the season in Australia or not.

“But if he does that before, that would be awesome. We are waiting for Rafa desperately.”

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