Watch: Rafael Nadal’s surprising appearance in Wimbledon warm-up event sends fans into overdrive

Rafael Nadal has been put of action since January this year. An injury on his hip during the shoch second-round exit in Australian Open 2023 saw Nadal skip the remaining hardcourt events followed by the claycourt season as well, including the French Open, where he won an unprecedented 14 titles. He recently underwent a successful surgery on his hip and his presently recovering from it, implying that he is likely to miss the remainder of the year before he returns in 2024, which is likely to be his final year in his professional career.

This means as world tennis gears up for the third Grand Slam of the calendar year where Novak Djokovic will be gunning for a record-equalling eighth title at the SW19 and further solidify his spot at the top of the Grand Slam list, with Carlos Alcaraz tipped as the only player to stop the rampage, Nadal, a two-time champion at the All England Club, will be missing the tournament.

However, a surprising appearance at a pre-Wimbledon event on Tuesday left fans emotional. The event was at his hometown in Mallorca, which hosts an annual grass-court 250 event. In a video that went viral on social media, Nadal was spotted at the venue, but unlike what most expect, the Spaniard was there to support his compatriot Feliciano Lopez.

The 22-time Grand Slam winner was present merely as a spectator along with his wife Maria Francisca Perello to support Lopez in what is his final tournament in his career.

Watch the video here…

In a press conference held last month where he had announced his withdrawal from the the French Open, Nadal had revealed his intention to return at the end of the year for the Davis Cup. However, following his surgery, it was said that he would require at least six months of time to fully recover. This means he would return directly in 2024, which will be his final year on tour.

“My idea is to try to say good-bye to all the tournaments next year and try to enjoy that [while] being competitive,” Nadal said in a press conference at his academy in Spain. “The chances [of that] are much higher if I stop.”

He added: “I’d like to give myself the option to end my career on a tennis court, feeling like a good tennis player and fighting for big tournaments. Whether that’s viable or not, we’ll see in the future”

“I do not deserve to end my career like this. I think that I have done enough effort during my sports career to end it in a different way, not in a press conference.”