Rafael Nadal will return to tennis at the 2024 Barcelona Open, and he'll play Italian Flavio Cobolli in the first round.
There are a lot of unknowns about this match, but none of them are Cobolli. He's a young player from Italy who has been slowly but surely making his way to the top of tennis.
The Italian has a good game for clay and played on it a lot growing up, so he shouldn't be an easy opponent for Nadal to crack. He also likes to attack, which makes him even more dangerous.
We know very well how Nadal can play on clay, but none of it really matters this year because he's now attempted a comeback twice and got injured both times.
The Australian Open attempt was going well, but an injury cut it short. The Netflix Slam match looked good, but an injury happened again. Now, he'll try again, and hopefully, there won't be an injury. His play was never the issue, but his health was.
Head-to-head:
Nadal and Cobolli obviously never played against each other because the Italian hasn't played on the ATP Tour when Nadal last did. There is nothing to say about the matchup either because a healthy Nadal is a massive favorite against Cobolli.
| Rafael Nadal | Flavio Cobolli | |
| 0 | H2H | 0 |
| 646 | Rank | 63 |
| 37 | Age | 21 |
| 2-1 | 2024 W/L | 9-8 |
| 1070-221 | Career W/L | 15-19 |
Prediction:
There is a universe in which Cobolli earns a win over Nadal on clay and then frames the picture of that on his bedroom wall. The more likely outcome, if Nadal is healthy, is that Cobolli joins the huge list of players who tried and failed to beat him on clay. I'll assume that Nadal will be good to go, so it will be an easy win.
Prediction: Rafael Nadal to win in two sets.
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