Rafael Nadal, who had announced his return to competition for Tuesday, January 2 at the ATP 250 in Brisbane, will advance his return to competition a couple of days by deciding to participate in the same tournament in doubles together with Marc López, debuting against to the Australians Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson at the Pat Rafter Arena.
Nadal and Marc López, 41 years old and a member of his partner’s technical team, were a couple in 2016 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, in which they won the gold medal.
This will be Nadal’s first doubles match since he played Roger Federer in the Swiss’s farewell match at the Laver Cup in September 2022.
Thousands of fans surrounded Rafael Nadal at a promotional event for the Brisbane tournament in the city centre, in which the Spanish player, back in competition for the first time in eleven months, declared that he felt “much better” than what he imagined just a month ago and that having returned to action “is already a victory.”
“I feel good. I can’t complain. I feel much better than I expected a month ago,” he said, in a conversation in which his words were received with shouts of enthusiasm by his followers.
