Nadal lowering expectations in ‘unexplored terrain’ on return

MADRID, Spain (AP):

Rafael Nadal has lower expectations for when he returns to the tour in January after a year out.

Nadal announced on Friday he will play at the Brisbane International in Australia in January. The 37-year-old Spaniard has not appeared on tour since last January when he hurt his hip flexor during a loss in the second round of the Australian Open. He wound up having arthroscopic surgery in June in Barcelona.

In a video on social media yesterday, Nadal said he hopes to “feel those nerves, that illusion, those fears, those doubts” on the court again.

“I have been afraid to announce things because, in the end, it’s a year without competing, and it’s a hip operation. But what worries me the most is not the hip. It’s everything else,” he said. “I think I’m ready, and I trust and hope that things go well and that it allows me to enjoy myself on the court.”

Nadal said he knows things may be different after so much time without competing.

“I expect from myself not to expect anything. This is the truth. To have the ability not to demand from myself what I have demanded of myself throughout my career,” he said. “I’m in a different moment and situation and an unexplored terrain.

“I have internalised what I have had throughout my life, which is to demand myself the maximum, and right now, what I really hope is to be able not to do that, not to demand the maximum, to accept that things are going to be very difficult at the beginning and to give myself the necessary time and forgive myself if things go wrong at the beginning, which is a possibility.”

Last May, a little more than a week before the French Open, Nadal announced he was missing the tournament that has earned him 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles. He said then that he hoped to compete in 2024, which he expected to be his final season.

Nadal finished his message yesterday by saying that things could change for the best in a “not-too-distant future” if “I keep the illusion and the spirit of work” and if his “physique responds” well.

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