Nadal’s return is a huge boost for US Open

Rafa Nadal’s timely recovery from injury to return to the US Open for the first time since winning the 2019 title is a big boost to the men’s draw which has been depleted by the absence of Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev.

Nadal returned to the tour only last week at the Cincinnati Open, having not played a competitive match since pulling out of his Wimbledon semifinal against Nick Kyrgios due to an abdominal injury in July.

The 36-year-old’s comeback was marked by a defeat to Borna Coric at the Masters 1000 event, but more importantly for the Spaniard he did not seem hampered by the injury.

Flushing Meadows has been a happy hunting ground for the left-hander, who won the hard court Major four times before he skipped the 2020 tournament due to the Covid-19 pandemic and missed 2021’s edition due to injury.

“I need to move forward and just start to think about the energy that the crowd gives me in New York,” Nadal, who has won the Australian and French Open titles in 2022, said last week.

“It’s a very special place for me, and I enjoy it, unforgettable moments there, and I’m going to try my very best every single day to be ready for that.”

Dominic Thiem, the men’s 2020 champion, will also return to Flushing Meadows after his absence 2021 due to injury.

Without a clear favourite in the men’s draw, Nadal’s biggest threat is expected to come from reigning champion and world No 1 Daniil Medvedev.

The Russian went down in five sets in the 2019 final to Nadal and has finished runner-up on the hard courts of the Australian Open in the last two editions.

The rangy Russian has won 14 singles titles in his career — all but one on hard courts, including his only major when he denied Djokovic the calendar Grand Slam 2021 at Flushing Meadows.

The 26-year-old was forced to miss Wimbledon due to the ban on Russian players and stepped up his preparations for the year’s final major with a title in Los Cabos, Mexico, and a semifinal defeat by Stefanos Tsitsipas in Cincinnati.

Sandwiched between the two events came an opening defeat at the Canadian Masters for Medvedev against temperamental Australian Nick Kyrgios — one of the tour’s red-hot players on current form.

After years of being branded a wasted talent, Kyrgios has displayed a level of consistency in the last couple of months that he has lacked until now. He finished runner-up at Wimbledon, won the Washington title and reached the quarterfinals in Montreal.

Kyrgios, 27, has confirmed the US Open will be his final event of the season before he heads back home and he will have to harness the last bit of his motivation and energy to go deep in New York.

Another player headed to Flushing Meadows bubbling with confidence will be Croatia’s Coric, who clinched the Cincinnati title with wins over three top-10 ranked players — Nadal, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Tsitsipas — among others.

The 25-year-old, who returned to the Tour in March after a lengthy layoff after 2021’s shoulder surgery, jumped to 29th in the rankings from a pre-tournament 152nd and will be the dark horse at the US Open.

World No 4 Carlos Alcaraz, 19, will lead the charge of the young brigade, with pundits confident it is just a matter of time before the supremely athletic Spaniard wins his first Major.

Djokovic, who has won the US Open title three times, will be the biggest name missing from the party at the Big Apple due to his decision to stay unvaccinated against Covid-19.

The Serbian, who won Wimbledon for his 21st Major title, was unable to defend his Australian Open crown after being deported from the country in January over his vaccination status.

Djokovic will not be able to enter the US either due to restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.

Reuters