Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley released “exclusive” news this week as he revealed Rafael Nadal will play in the 2023 season-opening Grand Slam.
Tilly announced that 22-time Grand Slam champion Nadal will be on the roster for next year’s tournament after recovering from hip surgery. The Spaniard underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left psoas tendon in June and has an expected recovery time of five months.
With the ATP Tour season set to end in November, Nadal won’t return until early 2024, while Tilly confidently revealed on Wednesday that he will play in next year’s Australian Open.
“We can exclusively reveal here that Rafa will be back,” he said. “He’s been out for most of the year and speaking to him over the past few days I’ve confirmed he’ll be back and we’re very excited about that. “Fantastic. “
But Tilly has been saying at his traditional press conference in October that big-name players will appear at next year’s Australian Open, but those players will eventually withdraw.
Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Serena Williams were some of the players who were encouraged to play, but ended up watching from the sidelines.
READ MORE: Rafael Nadal weighs in on rumors of sensational return at Australian Open
Here are five times Terry made mistakes.
Andy Murray – Australian Open 2018
Back in October 2017, Tiley revealed that Murray was expected to compete in the 2018 Australian Open after battling a hip injury during the second half of the 2017 season.
“On the men’s side, there’s a lot of concern and speculation about Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori,” Tilly said.
“I can tell you, speaking to Andy, he’s been training and getting ready to have a good year in 2018.
“How much it’s going to hurt him this year, watching Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal) share four Grand Slam titles – he’s not going to like that.
“As competitive as Andy is, we know he’s back and he wants to improve on his current ranking of third in the world and get back to number one.”
Murray announced in early 2018 that he would not compete in that year’s Australian Open, and to be fair, the Scot only made the decision to pull out of the tournament at the last minute because he was so hopeful about the tournament.
Serena Williams – Australian Open 2018
Just as there has been speculation about Murray’s return to tennis in 2018, there are also questions about whether Serena Williams will return to defend her Australian Open title.
Williams was pregnant with her first child, Alexis Olympia, when she won the title in 2017, beating sister Venus Williams in the final.
After giving birth to her baby in September, Williams plans to return in early 2018 and Tilley is once again confident of her ability to compete in Australia.
“Serena will be back,” he said. “We look forward to welcoming her and once again embarking on a journey to break the record for most Grand Slams.”
Unfortunately for Tiley, there was no grand welcome back as the tennis superstar pulled out of the competition.
Andy Murray – Australian Open 2020
In 2019, Murray underwent hip surgery after being eliminated in the first round of the Australian Open, and he once again set his sights on returning to the court next year.
Tilley was involved again, telling Australia’s Triple M radio: “Andy will definitely be here. I called his agent this morning. He will arrive in Australia early.
“He’s ready to come back. Remember he said goodbye a year ago. He had surgery during that period and recovered well, which was great.”
Murray was unable to return.
Roger Federer – Australian Open 2021
The great Roger Federer struggled with knee injuries in 2020, missing the French Open and the US Open (Wimbledon was canceled due to Covid-19).
“We talk to them (top players) every week,” Tilley said during a video conference. “Roger (Federer) confirmed that he will be here. Serena will also be here, obviously to break Margaret Court’s (career Grand Slam singles champion) record.”
Unfortunately, Tilly made another mistake and Federer failed to recover from his knee injury, but at least he was playing against Serena in her 2021 match.
The 2020 Australian Open proved to be Federer’s last tournament as he also did not compete before retiring in September 2022.
Serena Williams – Australian Open 2022
Serena Williams missed the US Open that year after suffering a leg injury at Wimbledon in 2021, but Tiley revealed she will compete at the 2022 Australian Open.
He told a news conference in October that he was once again the one with a busy phone: “I’ve been on the phone with Serena for the last 48 hours and she’s getting ready to come here in January.”
Serena Williams ended up not participating in the 2022 Australian Open.