Australian Open chief executive Craig Tiley on Thursday reiterated his full confidence in the return of Rafael Nadal at next year’s opening Major as the Spaniard continues his rehabilitation from the several different injuries that have plagued him over the past few years. 

The 22-time Grand Slam champion had revealed earlier this year that he plans for 2024 to be his final year on the competitive tennis tour.

Nadal has not played a professional tennis match since bowing out of the second round at Melbourne last year due to a hip flexor injury. He is yet to confirm where and when his comeback will take place. 

But Tiley maintains that he is confident the 37-year-old will not miss out on the opportunity to repeat his heroics from 2022, when he returned from a similar injury-induced break to win the Australian Open despite trailing Danil Medvedev by two sets in the final.

“Rafa has been training, I follow him closely, probably every day, because he’s a massive drawcard for us,” the Australian Open chief was quoted as saying by Reuters. “He wants to play. He is obviously planning on playing. It all depends on how he pulls up.”

“Hopefully in the next week or the next two weeks, we get some specific confirmation of that. I’m certain Rafa will be here because he’s not going to want to miss the opportunity to repeat what he did a couple of years ago,” Tiley added.

Last month, the executive had mentioned for the first time that he believes Nadal, a big commercial draw for the tournament, should return to the Australian Open in 2024, to which Nadal, neither confirming nor denying, just responded that he “appreciated the vote of confidence” in a post on his X account.