Alex Corretja has outlined a new timeframe for Rafael Nadal to commit to an Australian Open comeback after the 22-time Major champion had to clarify that he wasn’t guaranteed to play. Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley recently announced that Nadal would make his comeback at the event in January before the Spaniard and his team shut Tiley’s claims down.
A two-time Australian Open champion, Nadal said he appreciated the vote of confidence from the tournament and was working every day to try and return while his team clarified that no return date was set in stone. The 37-year-old hasn’t played a match since this year’s Aussie Open, injuring his left psoas during his second-round loss.
Fellow Spaniard Corretja insists that the former world No 1 will know when he is ready to return, suggesting that a definitive answer on the Australian Open would probably come in mid-December. “When Rafa said, well, I’m happy to see that you give me this trust, then I realised that this is going to go little by little and I hope he announces his return,” the retired tennis pro told Eurosport.
“But I don’t expect it before mid-December, perhaps because that would be the moment in which I think he will know if he is ready to start the season in Australia or not. But if he does it before, it would be fantastic. We are desperately waiting for Rafa.”
Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive tennis news
The former world No 2 admitted that he had his reservations when Tiley claimed Nadal would definitely be playing in Melbourne come January, as he continued: “I was very surprised that after Rafa had not played tennis for a while, I thought he would be the one to announce when he was going to return, what tournament he was going to try or prepare to play.
“But the announcement caught us off guard, ‘How is Craig saying that?’ At first I thought maybe it’s something they talked about among themselves and planned it like that because if not, why was Craig breaking this news?”
At the time, Tiley told the Today show: “We can reveal exclusively here that Rafa will be back. He’s been off for most of the year, and in talking to him over the last few days he confirmed he will be back, which we’re really excited about. That’s awesome.”
And Corretja thought that announcing a definitive return date so early – especially at a Grand Slam tournament – would put extra pressure on Nadal to force himself to be ready. “I don’t think it’s necessary to put all the pressure on yourself,” he added.
“Like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m going to be there.’ Because you don’t know how you’re going to react, how your body is going to feel after you start playing sets, after doing some more physical effort, after playing three hours one day. And how will your body be the next day? And this is more or less what you have to do before entering a Grand Slam, especially after so long without playing.”
