Rafa, 36, ranked third, hasn’t played since suffering an abdominal strain before his Wimbledon semifinal match last month and is the second seed in Cincinnati behind seed leader Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
With Serbian Novak Djokovic out of the tournament due to his refusal to get vaccinated against Covid-19, Nadal has one less opponent to deal with in his US Open set-upwhich kicks off on August 29 in Flushing Meadows, New York.
If he wins the Cincinnati title and Medvedev fails to reach the quarterfinals, Nadal will return to the top of the ranking for the first time since January 2020.
“Number one is good, but staying healthy is the most important thing,” Nadal, the 2013 Cincinnati champion, said Sunday. chance”.
“My goal is to stay healthy and finish the season playing where I want to play. I won’t play more than I think will work for my body,” he added. “You can’t expect to play at an unbelievable level right away. You have to be humble and use the tools you have to win the first match.”
In addition to Nadal and Medvedev, other candidates in this tournament are the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipasthe Norwegian Casper Ruud, the also Spanish Carlos Alcaraz and the Argentine Diego Schwartzman, the Latin American best placed in the ranking, in fifteenth place.