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Rafa Nadal announces Grand Slam season comeback and pays tribute to Manolo Santana, 'icon and friend'
11/12/2021
TOP Spanish tennis ace Rafael Nadal has reassured worried fans after having written off the whole of the 2021 season – he is definitely coming back.
At least, that's his intention, provided his injured foot cooperates.
The Mallorca-born 'King of Clay', winner of 20 Grand Slam titles including 13 at Roland Garros, an Olympic gold medallist who has been world number one in three different decades, has a fixed goal for 2022: Making it to the first big date of the year.
He is already putting the wheels in motion to get to the Australian Open, the first time he will have taken part in a Grand Slam since this spring.
Rafa had to pull out of Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the 2021 season, which he was due to début in on June 17, and also the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held a year late after the Games were shelved due to the Covid pandemic.
This was the second Olympics Nadal had lost due to injury, as he also had to scratch from London 2012, where he was due to be flag-bearer in the opening ceremony for Spain, although he went on to do this in Rio 2016 where he netted a gold in the doubles with playing partner and old friend Marc López.
Nadal announced on August 20 this year that he would not be competing any more for the rest of the season, believing he should 'listen to his body' and that he needed more down-time for his left foot to recover from its injury.
He told fans a month ago that he planned to play in the show match in Abu Dhabi, which takes place between December 16 and 18.
The last time Rafa took part in any competition was the ATP 500 in Washington DC (USA) in August, and his first official tournament, all being well, will be the ATP 250 in Melbourne, Australia between January 4 and 9.
This is held at the same venue as the Australian Open, and Nadal will be joined by Japan's Kei Nishikori, South Africa's Kevin Anderson and Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov, among others.
As well as missing out on Wimbledon and the Olympics, Rafa's time out has meant he also lost out on playing in the US Open, and his absence from the circuit has caused him to drop down to ATP world number six.
Additionally, not having played since August and missing two Grand Slams resulted in his failing to qualify for the ATP Finals for the first time in 17 years.
This year, 2021, is only the third of his career – which started in 2005, when he was just 19 – in which Rafa has not won a single major title.
He failed to do so in 2015 and 2016, again because of injury rather than loss of form.
Despite his age – 36, almost geriatric for a player at his level – Nadal has no imminent plans to retire; rather, he wants to get back to top form in a bid to make history by becoming the first tennis player ever to win more than 20 Grand Slams.
Just one major title stands between Rafa and breaking the record.
Nadal already holds one for Roland Garros, having won more titles at the Paris stadium than anyone else, male or female, singles or doubles, since the start of the Open era, but would need to win two more to beat the total for all time, including the pre-Open era.
Nadal's heartbroken message to 'friend and trailblazer' Manolo Santana
But Nadal is not the only multiple Roland Garros winner from Spain – the man who put the sport on the nation's map and is credited with inspiring a whole generation to take it up, Manolo Santana, clinched two Paris Open titles in the 1960s.
Manolo, who passed away today (Saturday) aged 83 after years of health problems – and whom Marbella's tennis club, formerly known as the Puente Romano, is named after – also won Wimbledon, the US Open, and an Olympic gold medal in México 1968.
Santana's start in life was poles apart from the glamour and fame he would eventually achieve in his sporting career before switching to TV commentating, coaching and tournament management – he was born to a working-class family in the Madrid neighbourhood of Vallecas, in May 1938, and started working at Velázquez tennis club aged 12, picking up stray balls.
Manolo was the second Spaniard to enter the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, in 1984, after Manuel Alonso did so seven years earlier.
His ex-wife Mila Ximénez – mother of his adult daughter Alba, who lives in The Netherlands – passed away earlier this year from lung cancer, but the family opted not to tell him as they said his health was already poor and the shock may be too much for him.
Rafa Nadal tweeted an emotional homage to Manolo Santana this afternoon, having 'just heard the terrible news' of his passing.
“As I've said many times in the past: A thousand thanks for what you did for our country and for being a trailblazer for so many of us,” Nadal wrote
“You were always an icon, a friend, and a close comrade to us all.”
Related Topics
TOP Spanish tennis ace Rafael Nadal has reassured worried fans after having written off the whole of the 2021 season – he is definitely coming back.
At least, that's his intention, provided his injured foot cooperates.
The Mallorca-born 'King of Clay', winner of 20 Grand Slam titles including 13 at Roland Garros, an Olympic gold medallist who has been world number one in three different decades, has a fixed goal for 2022: Making it to the first big date of the year.
He is already putting the wheels in motion to get to the Australian Open, the first time he will have taken part in a Grand Slam since this spring.
Rafa had to pull out of Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the 2021 season, which he was due to début in on June 17, and also the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held a year late after the Games were shelved due to the Covid pandemic.
This was the second Olympics Nadal had lost due to injury, as he also had to scratch from London 2012, where he was due to be flag-bearer in the opening ceremony for Spain, although he went on to do this in Rio 2016 where he netted a gold in the doubles with playing partner and old friend Marc López.
Nadal announced on August 20 this year that he would not be competing any more for the rest of the season, believing he should 'listen to his body' and that he needed more down-time for his left foot to recover from its injury.
He told fans a month ago that he planned to play in the show match in Abu Dhabi, which takes place between December 16 and 18.
The last time Rafa took part in any competition was the ATP 500 in Washington DC (USA) in August, and his first official tournament, all being well, will be the ATP 250 in Melbourne, Australia between January 4 and 9.
This is held at the same venue as the Australian Open, and Nadal will be joined by Japan's Kei Nishikori, South Africa's Kevin Anderson and Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov, among others.
As well as missing out on Wimbledon and the Olympics, Rafa's time out has meant he also lost out on playing in the US Open, and his absence from the circuit has caused him to drop down to ATP world number six.
Additionally, not having played since August and missing two Grand Slams resulted in his failing to qualify for the ATP Finals for the first time in 17 years.
This year, 2021, is only the third of his career – which started in 2005, when he was just 19 – in which Rafa has not won a single major title.
He failed to do so in 2015 and 2016, again because of injury rather than loss of form.
Despite his age – 36, almost geriatric for a player at his level – Nadal has no imminent plans to retire; rather, he wants to get back to top form in a bid to make history by becoming the first tennis player ever to win more than 20 Grand Slams.
Just one major title stands between Rafa and breaking the record.
Nadal already holds one for Roland Garros, having won more titles at the Paris stadium than anyone else, male or female, singles or doubles, since the start of the Open era, but would need to win two more to beat the total for all time, including the pre-Open era.
Nadal's heartbroken message to 'friend and trailblazer' Manolo Santana
But Nadal is not the only multiple Roland Garros winner from Spain – the man who put the sport on the nation's map and is credited with inspiring a whole generation to take it up, Manolo Santana, clinched two Paris Open titles in the 1960s.
Manolo, who passed away today (Saturday) aged 83 after years of health problems – and whom Marbella's tennis club, formerly known as the Puente Romano, is named after – also won Wimbledon, the US Open, and an Olympic gold medal in México 1968.
Santana's start in life was poles apart from the glamour and fame he would eventually achieve in his sporting career before switching to TV commentating, coaching and tournament management – he was born to a working-class family in the Madrid neighbourhood of Vallecas, in May 1938, and started working at Velázquez tennis club aged 12, picking up stray balls.
Manolo was the second Spaniard to enter the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, in 1984, after Manuel Alonso did so seven years earlier.
His ex-wife Mila Ximénez – mother of his adult daughter Alba, who lives in The Netherlands – passed away earlier this year from lung cancer, but the family opted not to tell him as they said his health was already poor and the shock may be too much for him.
Rafa Nadal tweeted an emotional homage to Manolo Santana this afternoon, having 'just heard the terrible news' of his passing.
“As I've said many times in the past: A thousand thanks for what you did for our country and for being a trailblazer for so many of us,” Nadal wrote
“You were always an icon, a friend, and a close comrade to us all.”
Related Topics
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