Rafael Nadal suffered a setback in his preparation for the 2024 Australian Open after he was laid low by a hip problem during his Brisbane Open quarterfinal loss to Jordan Thompson, at the Pat Rafter Arena. Incidentally, he had sustained a career-threatening hip flexor injury last year, which required arthroscopy surgery.
The 37-year-old Nadal seemed to be gesturing to his box during the latter half of the second set that he was feeling some pain in his leg. In the third set, at 1-4, he also left the court for a few minutes for treatment. Eventually, in a gruelling match where Nadal had three match points, he ended up losing 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 3-6.
On a slightly positive note, Nadal said in the post-match press conference that it could be more of a muscle problem. But with the Australian Open starting on January 14, 2024, he doesn’t have much time to recover and train for the first major of the year.
“It is a very similar place to what happened last year, but different,” Nadal said. “I feel more muscle, last year I had a tendon. For sure it’s not the same as last year at all because when it happened last year I felt something drastic immediately. Today, I didn’t feel anything.
“The only problem is that because the place is the same you are a little bit more scared than usual. I hope it’s not important and I hope to have the chance to practice next week and to play Melbourne. Honestly, I am not 100% sure of anything now. From this perspective you don’t know all the information that I have. The only thing that probably you see is I have been playing very well the last two matches. It’s true, I have been playing well.
“A lot of things can be happening in a body like my body, after a year without playing tennis. So hopefully it is just that, just a muscle that is supercharged … if that’s the thing, everything is perfect. That’s why … I have been talking with a lot of precaution. If things happen, if I have one problem there, one problem with the other part of the body, I need to accept.”
Nadal, a former World No. 1 and winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, had made a fine comeback from the injury by winning the first two rounds in Brisbane. He beat both Dominic Thiem and Jason Kubler in straight sets. He was particularly impressive against Thiem, cracking both cross-court and inside-out forehands with intensity and depth.
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