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Over the last few weeks, there have been a few doubts surrounding Rafael Nadal and whether he would actually play in the 2022 US Open. There are two reasons why these doubts have been circulating among tennis fans. Firstly, he has only played one warm-up tournament since tearing his abdomen at Wimbledon back in July. This was in Cincinnati, but he lost to Borna Coric in his opening match. If you watched the game, Nadal didn’t quite look 100% fit, although we cannot take anything away from Coric!
Secondly, and more surprisingly, Nadal’s wife has recently been rushed to hospital back in Mallorca. News broke about this within the last 24 hours, which cast even more doubts about his appearance at the event. She is facing a possible surgery back home, and it is assumed that this is related to her pregnancy. However, nothing concrete has been documented on this, and all we can do is hope that things go smoothly over there.
Either way, I am sure that this has unsettled Nadal, as it would anybody. But the fact that the Spaniard had been practising in New York for the last few days always indicated that he would be playing. Nadal also took part in the exhibition known as ‘play for peace’ in Arthur Ashe Stadium. If we needed any more confirmation for his participation, his name is in the draw and he is seeded number two at Flushing Meadows.
So at this point, unless something drastically changes, it can be assumed that we will see this legend competing at the 2022 US Open. On that note, let me now dive a little deeper into Nadal’s draw, his chances, and what a win in New York would mean for him and for history.
2022 US Open – Rafael Nadal’s Tournament Overview
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The exact schedule of play has yet to be released for the US Open. But since the draw has been created already, we can now have a much better look at what faces Nadal over the next two weeks. Amazingly, Nadal is chasing a fifth US Open title this year, and if he was able to pull it off, he would have 23 Grand Slam titles to his name. This alone is staggering, but things won’t be straightforward for the Spaniard.
Let me kick things off by looking at his draw for the US Open 2022. Obviously, things are a little speculative for the moment as upsets can and will likely happen. But I can still give an overview based on the seedings and likely outcomes.
Nadal’s Possible Run for the US Open Crown
The draw for the 2022 US Open was announced yesterday, and Nadal has a pretty good run of things for the first couple of rounds. For his opening match, he is playing against an Australian wildcard – Rinky Hijikata. Of course, Nadal is expected to breeze through this opening round. After that, he will face either Fognini or Karatsev. Both of these guys can play some great tennis on their day, and Fognini did actually beat Nadal at the US Open back in 2015. However, it is expected that Nadal will get the job done and progress through to the third round.
Beyond that, if seedings go to plan, he will play against the young Serbian, Kecmanovic. Nadal has beaten him in both of their previous meetings, so he should really make it to the 4th round. This is the stage where things start to get interesting. He could face either Schwartzman or Tiafoe in the 4th round. I feel he would prefer to play Schwartzman, as he has an immense record against the Argentinian. Then again, he has also beaten Tiafoe on both occasions. But Tiafoe could cause him more problems as a big hitter in front of his home crowd.
Should he make it to the quarter-finals, the top two seeds he might face include Norrie and Rublev. Nadal has a 4-0 head-to-head record against Norrie, whereas he has just a 2-1 head-to-head with Rublev. If he was to make it to the semis, this is where he is expected to play Alcaraz according to the seedings. And of course, the final would be against Medvedev if everything went as the seeds indicate.
With all of this in mind, once we get to the quarter-final stage, anything could happen!
His Form and Injury Issues
After looking at the probable run of the tournament for Rafael Nadal, let me now address the elephant in the room. Nadal has endured some chronic injuries over the last couple of years. As you may recall, he missed the 2021 US Open because of his long-term foot problem. He also picked up a stress fracture in his ribs during the 2022 Indian Wells event. Then at Wimbledon, he tore his abdominal muscles during his quarter-final match against Taylor Fritz.
So to say that Nadal has been somewhat injury prone in recent times would be a drastic understatement. However, he does seem to have recovered from the most recent abdominal tear, which is a promising sign. And the constant fear of his foot problems coming back to haunt him will always be there. Obviously, we all hope that the foot problems don’t cause Nadal any major issues at the 2022 US Open. But we cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that this isn’t a possible factor.
As for his form, since he hasn’t competed much in the last few months, it would be hard to give a concrete answer on this one. If we were to address his form after Wimbledon, of course, we would say that he is playing awesome. That’s if we ignore the injury. But since he has made a return to the tour, the only game he had involved a loss to Borna Coric. With that said, you just never know with Rafael Nadal.
He is the type of guy that can just find form out of nowhere. All it takes is a competitive battle that he wins and it’s like somebody just flicks a switch. So would I bet against him at the 2022 US Open? No, I wouldn’t.
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