Rafael Nadal is anticipating his return to tennis to be at next month's Indian Wells Masters, and his match kit for the event has been revealed to fans.
Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, is a three-time winner in Indian Wells and last competed at the tournament in 2022 when he lost to Taylor Fritz in the final. Despite his special affinity for clay, the hard courts in Palm Springs, California, are one of his favorites.
The 37-year-old is also a good friend of Larry Ellison, the owner of the tournament, and has been a regular visitor to the golf courses in California whenever he makes the trip there in the spring. This year, the Spaniard is making his return to Indian Wells after a two-year absence.
Nadal's outfit for the first Masters 1000 tournament was recently released. He will don a red Nike t-shirt, which is not dissimilar to what he wore in Brisbane last month. But he will be hoping for a stroke of good fortune wearing the vibrant color.
His shorts will be all white, with accents of red incorporated into the logos. The fit will be complemented with black custom-made Nike shoes, which feature a red colorway of the sole and are accentuated with a white Nike logo.
Nadal was expected to play at the Qatar Open, which begins on February 19th but withdrew ahead of schedule. He stated that he had not fully recovered from the hip injury he sustained during his comeback tournament in Brisbane in January.
His unofficial return will happen at the "Netflix Slam" exhibition match when he confronts Carlos Alcaraz in a one-off duel scheduled to take place in Las Vegas on March 3rd, just a few days before the start of the Indian Wells tournament.
For now, Nadal is working persistently to be ready for that match and his long-awaited return to the desert. It is unclear what his schedule will look like after Indian Wells, but he has asserted that he wants to enjoy the clay season one more time.