After Six Month Absence Rafael Nadal Will Return To The Tour Thursday

Written by: Staff on 24th December 2012

Opening of the 100th tennis playground of the Richard Krajicek Foundation in Rotterdam

After Six Month Absence Rafael Nadal Will Return To The Tour Thursday

epa03489495 Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal attends the opening of the 100th tennis playground of the Richard Krajicek Foundation in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 28 November 2012. With the playgrounds the foundation of the former Dutch tennis player offers a place to play tennis for the underprivileged children in run-down suburbs. EPA/BAS CZERWINSKI |

Rafael Nadal is now just three days away from ending a six months long enforced absence from the tennis courts of the world after suffering acute knee problems, but he is far from confident of making an impressive return.

The 26 year-old former world no.1 and reigning French Open champion will make his first, extremely wary, steps since losing at the end of June in Wimbledon’s second round to Lukas Rosol in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, starting next Thursday (December 27) with the likes of Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and fellow Spaniard David Ferrer for company.

“I have my doubts, it’s normal,” admitted Nadal on Friday. “We are talking about a knee, so of course I am afraid to see how it is going respond. But I can only trust my doctors and believe in myself and that everything will be all right.”

So long as there is no dramatically adverse reaction, Nadal will then return to full-blooded tournament play, first at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha and then the Australian Open, beginning January 14. He openly admits his only ambition at Melbourne Park is to play pain free.

“I’m prepared to accept that at the start my knee might not respond well and I may have to take it easy, mixing periods of play and rest for the first three months,” said Nadal whose initial aim is to be as close to 100% in time for the French Open that begins in late May.

Nadal admits he is taking a risk and could be making a premature return to the sport that had made him a multi-millionaire. With each step of his rehabiltation he has been advised to take caution by both his uncle and coach Toni Nadal and long-term medical advisor, Spanish Tennis Federation’s official doctor Angel Ruiz Cotorro.

Rafa said: “It doesn’t matter how I play tennis in the next month or a month and a half; for me, my goal is not Abu Dhabi, it is not Doha, it is not the Australian Open — my goal is try to be fit, to be 100% recovered with my knee and 100% fit in personal performance by Indian Wells and Miami, to try to arrive to Monte Carlo and all the clay-court season in good shape.

“I’m going to try to play in Abu Dhabi, knowing the knee is still not perfect. The doctors say that the images are very good, so that is a big calm for me, but I still feel something. I need to be careful. I need to be focused on how the knee is getting better or worse every day, and don’t make a mistake that can be negative for my future.

“Not yet do I have the feeling that I am 100% ready to compete, to say, ‘I’m going to go there, I will be ready to run for every ball, to play aggressive, to do what I want with my legs and then try to play my best tennis to win.”

Nadal’s condition was eventually diagnosed as Hoffa’s Syndrome, an inflammation of the patellar tendon Cotorro, who has followed the Majorcan’s knee isues since the player was aged 14, maintained: “Rafa needed a long rehabilitation to deflate the tissue and then we must see if the treatment adopted will produce the desired results. Unfortunately, it was necessary to wait.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

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