Images of Nadal on a court, what’s more, sticking up old-fashioned concrete blocks as we like them, we don’t need more to put butterflies in our stomachs and imagine him (FINALLY) returning to a level acceptable for what will undoubtedly be the last season of his career.
Discomforted in the abdominals in recent weeks and forced to withdraw from Monte Carlo, the Majorcan now seems on the right path, if we refer to this short sequence published on Twitter, during a training match where the Spaniard gave Rublev a nice 6-1. And even if the Russian no longer puts one foot in front of the other lately, he still remains sixth in the world in the ATP. If doubts still accompanied the king of ocher, his presence in the Barcelona table was confirmed this Saturday.
Rafael Nadal will face the Italian Flavio Cobolli, 63rd player in the world, for his entry into the competition. With the hope of finding Alex de Minaur in the next round. The Australian, an easy winner over Stan Wawrinka (6-0, 6-0) for his entry into the competition in Monte-Carlo, fought hard against Novak Djokovic in the four finals before losing in two sets (7- 5, 6-4).
Still hoping to be able to make his big return home, at Roland-Garros, to celebrate his 38th birthday, Nadal, who has only played three official matches since his injury in the second round of the 2023 Australian Open, is on point today ‘today anecdotally 646th in the world. But the main thing is elsewhere. We are now crossing our fingers that we will not see him publish in the coming hours a tweet beginning with “Holà a todos”, now a harbinger of stinky news.