After being out of action since January of 2023, the 22-time Grand Slam champion announced on Friday morning that he would return to the ATP Tour in Brisbane, Australia next month.
“After one year outside of the tour, I think it is the right moment to be back,” one of the greatest tennis players ever wrote on social media. “So I feel ready to announce that I will be back in Brisbane in the first week of the season.”
The announcement is a breath of fresh air for tennis fans worldwide, who have been collectively holding their breath since the 37-year-old revealed his plans to leave the tour due to a hip ailment.
The Spaniard has been dealing with a nagging hip injury for years, and will play his first match since being stunned by Mackenzie McDonald in the second-round of the 2023 Australian Open. It's a tournament Nadal has won twice, most recently in 2022.
In that final against Daniil Medvedev, he became the first man in the Open era to come back from two sets down to win the title.
Nadal will appear at the ATP 250 event in Brisbane beginning on New Year's Eve. The tournament, which is held at the Queensland Tennis Centre, will commence on Dec. 31 and conclude on Jan. 7, with the Australian Open in Melbourne beginning on Jan. 14.
Nadal has not managed to gain any more ranking points since beating Jack Draper in R1 of the 2023 Australian Open, and he's fallen to 663rd in ATP men's rankings.
“Until now, I didn’t know if I would ever play tennis again and now I think so,” he continued. “What has changed from a few weeks ago to now is that now I know that I am going to play tennis again. I didn’t know it before, but now, honestly, I know it because the evolution is positive. Big steps have been taken lately.”
Although it's been a year, you can never count Rafael Nadal out in a Grand Slam, and the fact he will be back on the court in 2024 is phenomenal news for tennis fans across the globe.
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