Rafael Nadal announced the most awaited news of the tennis world this Friday. The Spaniard announced that he will return to competition in the Brisbane tournament in the first week of the season (31 December – 7 January). It’s been almost a year since your last matchAt the Australian Open on January 18, Nadal will return despite having an unprecedented ranking in his career.
Only 45 points from the second round of AustraliaThe tennis player from Manacor will compete in this position at the Brisbane event 663 rankings ATP. Although his long injury gives him two avenues for competition, it will not a priori allow him to compete in any ATP category tournament.
One option is to take invitationsThey definitely won’t miss it because every tournament will want to have a team that Nadal can lead. last year from his sports career.
The other option is to take advantage. protected sort. This option works like this: you need to bring it with you to participate. Six months out of competition due to injury. The ATP will take advantage of this protection and allow the tennis player to enter the court. next nine tournaments -or twelve if not played for a year-, with the average of the rankings in the three months since the last event played. For Rafa Nadal, this will mean he can enter tournaments as follows: world number 9. However, there is an answer to this and it is this: Does not allow seeding to enter tournaments.
Nadal assured that he would choose the option of entering with a protected ranking, which would allow other tennis players to also receive invitations. “If I can play with a protected rank so I don’t get invites from other people, the better.”
With the opportunity to play nine tournaments, Nadal would have enough time to gain a good position and if you do well in the first few contests, you may not even need to use all your credit.
Olympic Games, another story
Presence in Paris next summer It won’t be a problem for Nadal either. If he can take part in the event, if his physique allows it and the player wants it, the Balearic tennis player will also have different options to participate in the event.
benefit long injury It may help if the ITF, the International Tennis Federation, sends you an invitation. Also as prescribed “Commitment and achievements at the Olympic Tennis Event and/or Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup”, that Nadal will be invited without any problems, thanks to his extensive list of merits.