Rafael Nadal is in a double act at next week's Brisbane International, where he is set to return to the ATP Tour for the first time in 12 months.
Ahead of the tournament's draw ceremony on Saturday, December 30th, the eyes of the tennis world were fixated on Nadal's name and his possible first-round opponent. Because the Spaniard is playing with a wild card, he could draw anyone from the 32 players in the ATP 250 field.
The Spaniard has been out of action for a year due to a career-threatening hip injury he sustained at the 2023 Australian Open and required a lengthy recovery process following surgery in June. Nadal was forced to shut down his season entirely on the eve of last season's Roland Garros.
The 37-year-old has been building on his fitness and sharpening his arsenal in the preseason, making the trip to Kuwait to train inside his academy with French Next Gen star Arthur Fils and then returning to Mallorca to enjoy the festive period with family and hitting the courts again.
After making his long-awaited trip to Australia to play in Brisbane for just the second time in his career, Nadal has since learned his draw if he seeks to complete a clean sweep of trophies in singles and doubles competitions. His decision to play doubles doesn't come as a surprise.
Even though it will be his first outing since that memorable union with longtime rival Roger Federer at the 2022 Laver Cup. Nadal wants to accumulate sufficient mileage and minutes on the tennis court to build his confidence and climatize to hard courts.
He also wants to bring about that familiarity of competition that he's missed. As such, he is set to team up with compatriot Marc Lopez. The pair has accepted a doubles wild card and will play the Australian duo of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson.
It is far from an easy draw for the Spaniards, who are projected to face the fifth-seeded team of Nikola Mektic and Hugo Nys in the second round. But they are unlikely to be fazed by the challenge, considering they had great chemistry between them from their doubles success at the Rio Olympics eight years ago.
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