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Roberto Bautista Agut had beautiful words for Rafael Nadal. The 22-time Slam champion will come back on the court at the ATP 250 in Brisbane, almost a year after the serious injury he suffered at the 2023 edition of the Australian Open.
Bautista underlined how Nadal's friends and colleagues can admire him better than fans the greatness of Spanish. "Novak is better than Nadal, if you look at the numbers. I was talking about it with a friend in the gym. Someone who is not a fan or who has never played tennis may admire Rafa, but a tennis player or his friend still admires him more because he knows how complex it is to achieve everything that the Big 3 have achieved.
A fan can have an idea, but he doesn't know what monstrosities they have done. It's something incredible," Bautista told MARCA.
Carlos Alcaraz's words on Rafa Nadal
Despite the 37-year-old Majorcan's long absence from the fields, Carlitos Alcaraz has already had the chance to face his countryman, in his still short but brilliant career.
The two have challenged each other three times. Speaking of Nadal's return to the court, Alcaraz said he was convinced that the 22-time slam champion will soon return to the top of world tennis. "I think he is ready. I have seen some training videos and he seems 100%.
I have heard from other players who have trained with Rafa in the last few weeks and they told me that he will return to his good level. The maximum level of him. I think he is also ready for big things this year," said the Spaniard.
For Nadal it is, as he himself revealed, probably his last season as a professional. The Spaniard will take to the court in the preparatory tournament for the Australian Open, a year after his last appearance in the first slam of the year, when he was eliminated in the second round by Mackenzie Mcdonald. Then the injury, the operation and the long stop, but now he is ready to live one last season as a protagonist.