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Rafael Nadal is back on the slopes, and he does it with the utmost ambition. After more than four months out of combat due to a foot injury, the Spaniard will be tested starting next Friday at the Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament.
The winner of the duel between Andy Murray and Dominic Thiem will be his first rival, before playing on Saturday the final or the third and fourth place of a tournament that will measure his strength before the start of the new season, in which he will seek to return to the elite and add his Grand Slam number 21, a goal that resists both him, as well as Djokovic and Federer.
For this he will have a new member in his coaching staff. It is about a good friend with whom he competed until very recently: Marc López. According to 'Marca', the Catalan doubles player will become the third coach of the 13-time Roland Garros champion with Carlos Moyá and Francis Roig in the coming weeks.
López, with whom Rafa was proclaimed Olympic champion at the Rio Games, was already with him last January in the bubble that the Australian Open organization set up to protect tennis players from possible covid infections, and also collaborated during a good part of 2020 with Feliciano López.
His debut as a member of the staff of the former world number 1 will take place the first week of January on the occasion of the Melbourne tournament, the appointment that Manacor has chosen to prepare for the Australian Open, a tournament that will begin in Melbourne on January 17.
Tursunov speaks about Rafa
A great architect of Anett Kontaveit's recent success since he became his head coach this summer after coaching Aryna Sabalenka, Dmitry Tursunov gave a long and very interesting interview to the Russian site Vedomostisport.
And when asked which Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic will end up as the best player of all time, the former 20th world player acknowledged an advantage for the Serbian. “I find it hard to assume that Novak won't win another Grand Slam.
He will break the record for the number of wins, that's not a problem for him. Roger has very little chance of winning another Major, considering his age, style of play and condition. Rafa's game is too energy intensive, he plays every game as if it was his last.
Considering his age and health, this is a disadvantage. Although over the years he changed his game: he became more aggressive, stopped going too far behind the back line. The three complement each other. Djokovic has become such a strong player thanks to Federer and Nadal.
He tried to find ways to beat them, and he relied on physical preparation. He looks like a triathlete right now, he's very meticulous."
