Rafael Nadal will be finally seen in action at Qatar ExxonMobile Open – Tennis News
King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, has finally announced that his long-awaited return will materialize in the month of January 2013 and he will feature the competitive season-opening event in Doha, UAE. The former world number one has
eventually stepped on the tennis courts for practice after almost five months and has committed to return to the professional ATP circuit next year.
The Spaniard is scheduled to play some exhibition matches, along with the world number one, Novak Djokovic, and the British top ranked Andy Murray, in Abu Dhabi from 27th to 29th of December. He will then
lead the competitive players’ field at Qatar Open in Doha to officially mark his comeback from 31st of December.
“We are incredibly honoured to have another year with players of the highest calibre coming to the Qatar ExxonMobil Open,” the tournament director, Karim Alami, announced excitedly to the local news reporters. “Rafael Nadal is
returning to competitive tennis since his knee injury at Wimbledon so everyone is looking forward to seeing what he brings.”
Nadal has been sidelined from professional tennis due to his niggling left knee injury since his second round exit from the Wimbledon Championships last summer. He was outplayed by the then number 100 ranked opponent, Lukas Rosol,
in a tragic manner and has never seen in action since then. He planned to return to the ATP World Tour a couple of times, especially at the US Open Championships and the ATP World Tour Finals, but couldn’t even go through the practice sessions and eventually
postponed his plan.
It has been a long time since he has been sidelined from playing and it appears to be a perfect time for him to hit the hard-court season right from the beginning. He might not be having a fine touch on his return but his mere
presence on the tennis courts is sufficient to intimidate all the top class competitors. The Spanish number one is still holding the fourth rank in the ATP World Tour Rankings and a couple of championship titles right at the beginning of the new season can
certainly help him to regain his confidence.
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