Rafael Nadal, who is about to return from injury after a one-year absence, has been actively practicing recently to prove that he is not old, and although the world men's singles professional ranking has plummeted to 664, the 37-year-old Spaniard will use the "protection ranking" to join the 128-draw list for the men's singles main draw of the 2024 Australian Open.
The 37-year-old Spanish king Rafael Nadal.
Nadal is the 2022 Australian Open champion, but he will seek to defend his title next year, and he will take a break for nearly a year due to a serious waist and hip injury, and it was only recently announced that he will return to the ATP 250 Brisbane tennis tournament that will start on December 31 this year, warming up for the Australian Open Grand Slam tournament on January 14 next year. According to a number of foreign media reports, due to the sharp decline in the rankings, the legendary king has to start almost from scratch in the new year, especially in order to participate in the Australian Open and subsequent important tournaments, Nadal decided to use the "protection ranking" instead of wild card courtesy, that is, players who have missed more than 6 months due to injury can choose 9 tournaments to return based on the average ranking of the previous 3 months before the injury. However, this also prevents the 22 Grand Slam champions from being seeded, and may even be able to face top players in the first round, including Serbian star Novak Djokovic, who won the Australian Open ten times.
Nadal has revealed that next year will be the last dance of his career, and he is also working hard to make a comeback. It is reported that before Nadal flew to Kuwait, he prepared for the competition in his hometown of Mayuka, and specially invited 17-year-old French rising star Gabriel Debru (Gabriel Debru) to train together, which made the younger generations excited and happy, bluntly said that the opportunity is rare and beneficial, and learned a lot Xi from idols.