AMN
Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal arrived at Melbourne ahead of the ATP 250 event, scheduled to be held at Melbourne Park from the 4th of January. The ATP 250 event shares the venue with the upcoming Australian Open-2022, the season-opening Grand Slam tournament.
Meanwhile, the Australian Open took to their official Twitter handle on Saturday and shared glimpses of Nadal preparing for his ATP 250 fixture, which will be the 35-year-old’s first ATP Tour event since the Citi Open in Washington, DC, in August 2021. He had been out of action for over four months before making a comeback during the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi and tested positive for the COVID-19 virus a few days later.
The current World No. 6 Rafael will be looking to capture his 89th tour-level title in Melbourne after having recovered both from his left foot injury and COVID-19. At the same time, Reilly Opelka, Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin and Nick Kyrgios will also be seen competing in the tournament alongside Nadal. Following the ATP 250 event, Nadal will be next to his 21st Grand Slam title in the Australian Open 2022, which begins on the 17th of January.
Meanwhile, the decision from the organizers of the Australian Open-2022 to allow only fully vaccinated players to participate in the major tournament has seen withdrawals from players like Novak Djokovic from the ATP Cup in Sydney. Djokovic was scheduled to face Casper Ruud of Norway in the group stage match of the tournament today. However, he withdrew from the tournament in the previous week.