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Rafael Nadal to kick off Washington D.C. campaign on Wednesday night

The 20-time Grand Slam champion is playing the ATP 500 hard-court event for the first time in his career.

ByJohn Berkok

Published Jul 31, 2021

Rafael Nadal will make his long-awaited return to the tour this coming Wednesday night, playing his opening match at the ATP 500 hard-court event in Washington, D.C.

After a bye, the 20-time Grand Slam champion will open against the winner of the first-round match between Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka and American Jack Sock.

“I am very excited to come to Washington for the first time,” he said in a statement. "I have never been there, and it’s one more place I wanted to come and play. I am looking forward to playing again, and Washington shall be the best start for the U.S. summer swing for me.”

When he takes the court at 7pm on Wednesday, August 4th, Nadal will be playing his first match in 54 days—his last match was a grueling 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 loss to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of Roland Garros on June 11th. Afterwards, he announced he was withdrawing from Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics due to fatigue.

But now, Nadal is hoping to kick off another successful lead-up season to the US Open—he’s a four-time champion at the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, winning it in 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019. It’s actually his second-best major—he’s won Roland Garros a record 13 times, Wimbledon two times and the Australian Open once.

And as for Washington, D.C., he’ll try to win his 15th career ATP 500 title in the U.S. capital. With 14 right now, the Spaniard is one of only three players to have won 10 or more ATP 500 titles in their career, alongside Roger Federer (16) and Djokovic (13).

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Nadal's first match back will be against either Sock or Nishioka. He's 5-0 in his career against Sock and 2-0 against Nishioka.

Nadal's first match back will be against either Sock or Nishioka. He's 5-0 in his career against Sock and 2-0 against Nishioka.

© 2021 Getty Images

The No. 3-ranked Nadal is the only Top 10 player in the field this week, but there are plenty of big threats, most notably No. 15 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 18 Alex de Minaur, who are both on the other half of the draw, and potential final opponents. Former Top 10 players Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov, Kevin Anderson and Sock are all in the draw, too, along with a slew of former Top 20 players, including Jannik Sinner and Nick Kyrgios.

Nadal has won ATP titles at three U.S. events: the US Open (four titles); Indian Wells (three titles); and Cincinnati (one title). Exactly a quarter of all of his career ATP titles have come on hard courts—22 of 88 (he has also won 62 on clay and four on grass).