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Rafael Nadal ina ction
Shahida JacobsMarch 5, 2024
Rafael Nadal has been handed an interesting opening clash at the 2024 Indian Wells Open as he faces another player who is on the comeback trail in Milos Raonic.
Former world No 1 Nadal is scheduled to play his first match since January after he pulled out of the Australian Open and the Qatar Open due to a muscle injury.
The Spaniard has played only three matches – all coming at the Brisbane International – since he made his return to competitive action following his 2023 injury-enforced layoff, resulting in him dropping to No 652 in the ATP Rankings.
But he will finally return to action on Thursday, March 7 with organisers confirming that he will play during the evening session, which starts at 18:00 local time (02:00 GMT).
Nadal, though, did play an exhibition match against Carlos Alcaraz in Las Vegas on Sunday and he came through unscathed.
His match against Raonic – described as a “blockbuster” by the official Indian Wells Open website – will be against world No 224 Raonic, who himself has struggled with injury in recent years.
But it will be only the fourth time since the ATP Masters 1000 series was launched in 1990 that two players ranked outside the top 200 will meet.
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The winner of the Nadal-Raonic match will meet seventh seed Holger Rune in the second round while 26th seed Lorenzo Musetti is a projected third-round opponent and 12th seed Taylor Fritz a likely fourth-round opponent.
According to the ATP, Nadal and Raonic have met 10 times in top-level tennis with the former leading the head-to-head 8-2.
The player who comes through Section 4 is projected to meet fourth seed Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-final and top seed Novak Djokovic in the semi-final.
Medvedev, though, will likely have to get past 13th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round while Djokovic is projected to meet the in-form Ugo Humbert in the fourth round and either eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz or ninth seed Casper Ruud in the quarter-final.
The bottom half of the draw is headlined by Carlos Alcaraz with the defending champion expected to meet 15th seed Karen Khachanov in the fourth round and Alexander Zverev in the quarter-final.
If he gets through the draw then fans could be in for a tasty semi-final clash against Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner, who has Ben Shelton and Andrey Rublev in his path
