Rafael Nadal may have had a disastrous stint at the 2016 Australian Open but that shocking development has not stopped the Spaniard dead on his track.
According to Live Tennis, the world’s no. 5 has accepted an offer to appear at the 2016 ATP Argentina Open as a wildcard entrant in Buenos Aires from Feb. 8 to Feb. 14. This means that Nadal will be defending the title he won last year. However, his decision to join is seen by many as something tied up with his recent first-round exit at the Australian Open.
Obviously disturbed with the setback, it was the second tournament where Nadal fell short. Prior to falling to Fernando Velasco, he also lost to Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open held in Doha, Qatar.
"I asked for this wild card after the bad result in Melbourne and I hope that Buenos Aires will once again be the start of a good run for me. I will try my best to make sure it is," Nadal said via the ATP World Tour.
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With the addition of Nadal, the tournament now features four top 12 players. Aside from Nadal, also seeing action in the tourney is David Ferrer, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and John Isner.
Argentina’s top players are also expected to be in the upcoming tournament. These include Leonardo Mayer, Fabio Fognini, Nicolas Almagro and Verdasco, the same man who booted him out of the Australian Open.
With Nadal gearing up for another tournament, it will be interesting as well if there will be any changes in coaching. After his Australian Open exit, there were calls for the Spaniard to consider a change in coach since Nadal’s game was seen a bit off from what he usually does.
“When he was at his best and you look at his stats, he was serving in the low 130s and high 120s. Now he’s just spinning the ball in, it seems. For him, there’s only so much you can run down,” said retired tennis player Justin Gimelstop via USA Today.
But as mentioned previously on Latin Post, Nadal has hinted that he doesn’t feel the need to change coaches right now and that everything happening at the moment is all due to bad luck. However, it may ultimately not be up to Rafa but to his dad if a change in guidance comes up.
“I understand that in sport results come first and if you have to make a change, you have to do it,” Toni Nadal said via The National.
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