Rafa Nadal steps onto a court again 683 days after his retirement alongside legends such as Andy Murray and Marat Safin

On November 19, 2024, Rafa Nadal played his last match as a professional. It was at the Martín Carpena in Málaga and against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, in a Davis Cup Finals quarterfinal tie .

Since then, the man from Manacor has not played in any exhibition tournament and, in fact, he spent several months without even picking up a racket to sort out his chronic problems in his left foot and disconnect from the competitive whirlwind in which he had been immersed for two decades.

A 683-day hiatus that ends today with the staging of the Rafa Nadal Academy Slam, an exhibition tournament commemorating the ten years of his successful academy. And for such a special occasion, the 22-time Grand Slam champion wanted to surround himself with several of his friends and former rivals, starting with Britain’s Andy Murray , who leads the other team.

Also joining Team Rafa will be David Ferrer , the current Spanish Davis Cup captain; Carlos Moyá , Nadal's most recent coach, and Frenchman Richard Gasquet , his first great rival before turning professional.

Murray will also be surrounded by legends of the stature of Austrian Dominic Thiem , Russian Marat Safin and Italian Fabio Fognini , who did not want to miss the return to the courts of one of the greatest legends of their sport.

There will be four doubles matches —the composition of each pair is still unknown— with a single ten-point super tie-break. The tournament will begin at 5:00 p.m. with the opening match. The second will be at 6:00 p.m., the third at 7:30 p.m., and the fourth and final one at 9:00 p.m.

It is worth remembering that Nadal is a very good doubles player. In fact, he won as many as 11 titles in this discipline, including the Olympic gold at Rio 2016 alongside Marc López.