Novak Djokovic already knows what his preparation for the Australian Open will be like. The world number one will begin his 2024 season in Perth and Sydney, playing the United Cup: a mixed team tournament that will be held in the oceanic country between December 29 and January 7. ‘Nole’ will lead Serbia in the second edition of this competition just a week before competing in his 25th Grand Slam, at the Australian Open.
However, he will not face either Carlos Alcaraz, who announced this week that he would be out due to injury at the ATP 500 in Basel, or Rafa Nadal. It should be noted that the current world number two is recovering from “an inflammation in the sole of his left foot and problems in his gluteal muscles”, as he confirmed on his social networks.
As for the Manacorí tennis player, he explained yesterday that “I can train a little more and that is already progress.” “I have less pain, but I still have discomfort. I do things that I couldn’t do before and I train a little more,” acknowledged the 37-year-old player at the presentation of one of his new business projects, in Madrid. The winner of 22 Grand Slams is going “day by day” in his recovery process because he does not have “the ability to know how my body will be in a few months.”
“My first option right now would be in January, in Australia, but I don’t know for sure,” said Nadal, who does not have a return date marked on the calendar. The ATP tournaments in Adelaide, which will be held starting January 1, prior to the Open in Melbourne, could be one of the options to prepare for the first ‘big’ of the year. In addition, the Balearic player completely ruled out playing the Davis Cup, since Spain is eliminated and “in November it couldn’t have been,” according to the tennis player.
Likewise, Rafa, who faces the preparation for next season with “excitement”, highlighted Djokovic’s high level this year: “I imagined him winning the Grand Slam, but not that he would win three,” he acknowledges. “He has achieved something historic. Something that had never been achieved. “All that remains is to congratulate him,” he said about the 24 ‘majors’ of ‘Nole’, the tennis player with the most Grand Slams in history along with Margaret Court.
However, the man from Manacor believes that “there is another young generation that is very powerful” and among those proper names he includes Alcaraz: “He had a great opportunity at Roland Garros to prevent Djokovic from winning, but unfortunately what happened to him physically happened to him.” . Then he made up for it and achieved something historic for our sport, at Wimbledon, and I am happy about it,” he clarified about the level of the current world number two.
Spain presents the following players for the United Cup: Alejandro Davidovich, number 26 in the world ranking, Roberto Carballés (64) and Dani Vega in men’s representation and Sara Sorribes (36), Marina Bassols (110) and Nuria Párrizas (135) in the feminine plane. Therefore, the Spanish tennis player, Paula Badosa, will not be there either, who will play the Billie Jean King Cup this November.
At the international level, the Australian tournament will also feature tennis players such as Iga Swiatek, four-time major champion, the Greeks Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari, the Americans Taylor Fritz and Jessica Pegula, the Norwegian Casper Ruud and the Germans Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber.
