"He's ready to go" says Alex Corretja on Nadal and the clay season

Rafael Nadal will be heavily expected to dominate the clay season after his Australian Open triumph and Alex Corretja believes he has a shot.

Rafael Nadal will head into the 2022 clay-court season with “a lot of confidence” following his Australian Open success, according to analyst Alex Corretja. Following a disappointing 2021 campaign that saw him fail to win a Grand Slam and finish the season early due to a serious foot injury, not too many would have backed Nadal to win the season-opening major.

However, former world No 2 and tennis pundit Corretja feels the Spaniard will again be “the toughest guy to beat” on the surface. He said:

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“After he won in Australia I think Rafa is in the mood, he’s feeling so fresh and so ready to go and enter the clay-court season. He’s someone with a lot of power, a lot of confidence. I don’t think he’s going to look at Novak’s position. Because he knows that on clay he’s the toughest guy to beat."

Corretja further said:

“Of course if Novak plays or not, there are consequences. There are consequences in the draw, there are consequences when you enter the tournament. But I think they [Nadal and Djokovic] are so good that they really need to focus on themselves. And then see what the others decide. But neither of them need to look across at the other, or whether Roger [Federer] is back or not. The most important thing for tennis is that all of them are playing. But of course, there are some other issues in the world that are impacting the situation. Hopefully all of them will be playing.”