Big problems demand big solutions, or so Rafa Nadal must have thought when he decided to try to reach the start of the 2024 season in physical fitness to do something similar to what veteran rock bands like so much, a ‘last tour’, with its sights set on the clay court of Roland Garros, with the Grand Slam and the Paris Games as its main goals.
For this reason, before returning to Mallorca yesterday to celebrate Christmas with his family before leaving for Australia, the Manacorí spent several days at his academy in Kuwait, a place where he has greatly raised the level of his training, seeking to achieve a version that , after his iliopsoas injury in the last Australian Open, 11 months ago, had not yet been able to experiment.
Brisbane will be the first stop for Nadal who will have to face the first ‘big’ of the year in Melbourne knowing that he will have to face a tough rival in the first rounds of the championship due to his position in the ATP ‘ranking’, as he will play the tournament with protected classification.
Aware of this, in Kuwait he has played some ‘pachangas’ against strong and promising opponents on the circuit who will surely, despite the Spaniard’s special situation, not want to meet him in upcoming competitions.
One of them was Arthur Fils. The young French pearl shared exchanges with the Mallorcan in the Arab country and shared her feelings on the court with Ivan Ljubicic, from the French Tennis Federation (FFT). The Serbian, who was Roger Federer’s coach in his day, revealed that Fils wrote to him to tell him that “Nadal was playing at a very high level” during the tune-up he was carrying out in Kuwait.
Now, with less than 15 days until the winner of 22 Grand Slams and legend of the national sport puts on his headband again, places his bottles and shouts on the court, Nadal is more prepared than ever to face a season unimaginable ago. weeks and dreamed of for days.
2023-12-16 12:33:44
#tuneup #level #legend
