Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz will meet on the tennis court again, this time competing at the 2024 Netflix Slam in Las Vegas, United States.
This match was supposed to happen last year but since Nadal was not able to recover from his hip injury it never went ahead. Therefore, the exhibition was moved to this year with the hope that everybody would be healthy enough to play.
When it comes to Nadal he came back in Australia. He played a couple of good matches but then got injured once more and has missed every event since then. He was scheduled to return in Doha but he didn't.
We don't actually know how healthy Nadal is but presumably since he's in the United States already, the Spaniard recovered well enough for the match. It's the same for Alcaraz because we don't know his condition.
The last time he played was in Rio, and he limped out of the stadium in pain due to a bad ankle twist. He has since declared himself ready to play at Indian Wells, but he's made announcements like that before.
He might be good enough to play, but he might not be 100%, and that applies also to his opponent, which makes this match very unique, even though it's only an exhibition.
Either way the physical condition for either player is in question for this one. It's an exhibition match, so neither will probably go out 100%, certainly not to the level of their Madrid Open matchup.
The two have met already three times, with the more experienced Spaniard winning two of the matches. We'll see who wins this one, but reason would say that Alcaraz is more likely because he's played more this year, and should be more fit too.
Prediction: Carlos Alcaraz to win in two sets.
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