Rafael Nadal has just three days to decide whether he will be able to compete in the Barcelona Open after being placed in the draw. The 12-time champion is set to open his campaign against Flavio Cobolli on Tuesday at 4pm local time and the matches will only get tougher from there. But he has still not fully committed to playing following his recent injury struggles.
Nadal is running out of time to decide whether he is ready to compete in his first official tournament since January. The 37-year-old has been forced to continuously delay his comeback after picking up a micro muscle tear at the Brisbane International.
He has already withdrawn from the Australian Open, the Qatar Open, Indian Wells, and the Monte-Carlo Masters. And the Spaniard is hoping that he won’t have to do the same on home soil in Barcelona next week. Nadal travelled to the city on Wednesday to begin practising on the tournament grounds and he was present at Saturday’s draw ceremony, where he opted to keep his name in the mix.
If he chooses to play, the man dubbed the ‘King of Clay’ will face world No. 63 Cobolli in his opening match. Nadal has already been scheduled to play on Tuesday afternoon, meaning there are three days left if he needs to withdraw.
If he can take to the court and beat Cobolli, things will then get tricky for Nadal as he is set to face fourth seed Alex De Minaur in the second round. The Australian is enjoying the best season of his career, breaking into the world’s top 10 for the first time and beating Novak Djokovic at the beginning of the year in the United Cup.
The current world No. 11 reached the quarter-final of this week’s Monte-Carlo Masters where Djokovic got revenge and defeated him.
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