Nadal Not Coming Back ‘Just To Play’ According To Main Rival Djokovic

Rafael Nadal is days away from returning to tennis, and his main rival, Novak Djokovic, spoke about that recently.

Djokovic, like many of us, is eagerly awaiting Nadal’s comeback. For the Serbian, it’s a practical thing for him because he’ll actually play against him, so he’s obviously interested in the level Nadal might bring.

Plenty are sceptical of whether Nadal will play well at all, but Djokovic expects him to play as best as he can. He doesn’t think Nadal would be coming back to just do a farewell tour where he’ll play a few events here and there and not be competitive at all.

According to Djokovic, it’s pretty clear that Nadal is coming back to fight for trophies, which will be exciting to see.

“I always expect him [Nadal] to play at his best, to be honest. Many times they’ve signed him out, they’ve done that with me as well. But we’ve proved them wrong.

He’s not a kind of a player that will come back to the tour just to play – let’s say – on a medium level, play a few matches. “He wants to win titles, he wants to be the best, that’s why he is who he is: a legend of our sport. I’m sure that his training and preparation is done with an intention to win a Grand Slam.

Djokovic is right and we’ve heard this from a few players now. His colleagues are convinced he’s going to be really good even though analysts are a bit more careful with predictions. It might be collegiate courtesy but we’ll find out soon enough.

The official return is only a few days away as Nadal will be playing at the 2024 Brisbane International, which begins on January 1st. Stick with us for all the coverage from Nadal’s impending return and more.