Rafael Nadal reportedly set to compete at Cincinnati Masters

• Tennis News
• Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal intends to compete at next week's Cincinnati Masters, according to Jose Moron.

Rafael Nadal confirmed in Cincinnati next week. https://t.co/Yz2QZJaT0M — José Morgado (@josemorgado) August 10, 2022

Nadal, 36, sustained an abdominal injury at Wimbledon.

Nadal was scheduled to kick off his summer on hard courts this week at the Montreal Masters, but pulled out of the tournament due to the abdominal issue. But according to the latest reports, Nadal is feeling better and he is scheduled to fly to Cincinnati on Thursday.

Nadal is set to make his 13th appearance in Cincinnati. Interestingly, Nadal hasn't played in Cincinnati since 2017. In Cincinnati, Nadal has only triumph as he captured his lone title at the tournament after beating John Isner in the 2013 Cincinnati final.

Nadal felt a 'slight bother' during a practice last week

After Wimbledon, it was reported that Nadal was making a good progress from his abdominal injury and that he was expected to play in Montreal. Everything was going well until last week, when Nadal felt a "slight bother" in his abdominal area during practice.

“I have been practising for a while now without serving and started with serves four days ago,” Nadal announced last week. “Everything has been going well. However yesterday, after my normal practice, I felt a slight bother on my abdominal and today it was still there.

After speaking with my doctor, we prefer to take things in a conservative way and give a few more days before starting to compete. I would like to thank Eugene, the Tournament Director, and all his team for understanding and supporting me and this decision.

I am very sad not to finally travel to Montréal. It’s a tournament that I have won 5 times and I love to play there. I seriously hope I can come back there to play in front of the amazing crowds up there”. It remains to be seen how far can Nadal go in his first hard tournament this summer.