For more than a month, smoke signals coming out of Rafael Nadal’s camp have haunted the tennis world, from a triumphant spring on the red clay of Paris to him never playing a competitive match again after another hip injury. Everything is being predicted till now. Australia in January
The only thing that seemed clear was that the 22-time Grand Slam champion was prioritizing a clay court season in Europe this spring. Nadal said the same in January when he returned from a year-long layoff due to hip surgery.
Sure, he was happy to be back and competing in Australia, where he recently won the year’s first Grand Slam in 2022, but his focus was solely on staying in top form – or, at least, as much as possible. As close as he could get to it. At this point – in three months – is when the red clay tournaments will begin in earnest.
That’s why he missed the Australian Open when he suffered a small muscle injury near his hip three matches into his latest comeback. Logic suggested that Nadal wait until tennis returned to organic surfaces, which put much less stress on the body and where older, injury-prone players like Nadal, who is 37 and playing the most physical style of tennis, can play. Play, will have the best chance. staying healthy.
Some were surprised when he announced on social media this month that he was pulling out of a hard-court tournament in Doha. It was the second sentence of that post that surprised some people.
“I will focus on continuing to work to be ready for the exhibition in Las Vegas and the amazing Indian Wells tournament,” Nadal wrote on Valentine’s Day.
It will be an MGM Resorts exhibition match against 20-year-old Spanish sensation Carlos Alcaraz in Las Vegas this weekend, which will be streamed on Netflix, and then the BNP Paribas Open in nearby Indian Wells, California, which begins next week. .
Now this seemed strange to some people. Still, he had plenty of time to squeeze out those events and spend a few more weeks in Spain preparing for the clay.
And then, last week, Novak Djokovic posted a photo of himself and Nadal on the same flight that Nadal left for the United States. “Vamos,” Djokovic wrote. Game on – at least, in theory.
Great company on the way to USA 🇺🇸 😊 @Rafael Nadal #idemooo #vamos @atptour #tennisparadise pic.twitter.com/UDB13mp4Ux
– Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) 23 February 2024
However, the question is why?
“If he’s fit, he wants to play,” his longtime spokesman Benito Pérez-Barbadillo said Monday. “He is a tennis player and wants to play in the biggest tournaments. And he loves Indian Wells.
As commentator and former player Patrick McEnroe, who announced the match against Alcaraz, pointed out, Nadal often thrives on the slow hard courts of Indian Wells, where he has won three times and reached the final on two other occasions Is.
Injuries are extremely rare in exhibitions, but an exhibition in March and a hard-court tournament, even Nadal likes as much as Indian Wells, enough to compete for the title at the French Open in May and June Their chances of getting physically fit will improve. , where he has won 14 times and there is a statue of him swinging a bull-whip forehand outside the main stadium? In recent years, Nadal has shut himself down for about three weeks after Indian Wells to improve his timing and conditioning for two months of clay court tennis, where the timing and style of play is clearly different from hard courts. Varies in form.
Welcome back, winner 👋
: @Rafael Nadal , #tennisparadise pic.twitter.com/oVdoxv5JH0
– BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) 26 February 2024
The elephant in the room here is money.
Counting other people’s money, suggesting how much should be enough, is always uncomfortable. This is especially the case with professional athletes, whose careers typically last beyond 40 and who have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle.
That said, Nadal has won more than $134 million in prize money during his career spanning more than 20 years. They have collected millions, perhaps even more, in sponsorships and appearance fees. The terms of his deal with MGM and the terms of MGM’s deal with Netflix are not public, but he is likely to collect at least $1 million for the Alcaraz match, given that he and other players like him How much has one earned for playing in similar events.
Nadal will not receive an appearance fee for playing in Indian Wells, as it is a mandatory tournament for healthy players. He has other incentives. Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle who owns the tournament, becomes a friend and hosts Nadal at his private resort.
There, Nadal can pursue his other passion – golf. He has been known to play 18 or 36 holes a day during his time in the desert and has already visited the links in California.
It’s a good life. The question is whether he is risking the clay season, where he has his best chance of winning a 23rd Grand Slam singles title. Nadal will likely try to dismiss that thinking or anything that might suggest he is some kind of clay court specialist.
“I think it’s OK,” said longtime coach (Roger Federer, Taylor Fritz) and commentator Paul Annacone. “He’s already practicing in California, getting acclimated. So the only issue is whether he is not 100 percent. So don’t go. But I don’t think he would be here in California if he wasn’t close to 100 percent and ready for Indian Wells.
A few days after leaving Doha, Nadal posted a video of himself practicing slow service returns and captioned it, “A work in progress.” There have been more videos since his arrival in Indian Wells, but no footage of anything approaching the intensity.
All this has added to the mystery as to when Nadal might retire. Last year, shortly after his hip surgery, he suggested that 2024 would be his last season and that it would be a farewell tour of sorts as he visited the tournaments and cities that meant the most to him during his career. Used to keep.
He then showed glimpses of his old form during his three matches in Australia and got a taste of the competition he craved. He has not committed to any hard and fast timetable since then, insisting that he is taking it day by day.
The Olympic Games tournament will take place this summer at the French Open venue Roland Garros. There was speculation that this could lead to his leaving the post. He then signed a deal with the Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation to serve as an ambassador and play in an exhibition alongside Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune in Riyadh in October. That setting would seem an odd choice for his final matches.
The Davis Cup final will be held in Spain a month later. maybe then? That is, assuming he can make it that far without serious injury.
For now, and for better or worse, he has time to focus on a big pay day in Las Vegas and a hard court tournament in the California desert (and a lot of golf).
(Top photo: William West/AFP via Getty Images)
