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Rafael Nadal is coming back and will make his return to tennis in early January.
Nadal, 37, announced on X, formerly Twitter, Friday that he will enter the Brisbane International in Australia next month, nearly a year after he last played.
“After a year away from competition, it’s time to come back. It will be in Brisbane, the first week of January. I’ll see you there,” he said.
At the Australian Open last January, Nadal suffered a hip flexor injury during a second-round defeat. Initially, the 22-time Grand Slam champion was expected to miss 6-8 weeks, but the hip did not heal sufficiently. That caused him to withdraw from the French Open in May, a tournament he’s won 14 times. Nadal then underwent arthroscopic surgery in June and said he hoped to return in 2024, which he planned to be his final season.
“My idea, my motivation is to try to say goodbye to all the tournaments that have been important for me in my career and just enjoy being competitive and being on court, which today is not possible,” Nadal said at the time.
Nadal began 2023 as the No. 2 player in the ATP singles rankings, and now sits No. 663 in the world.