"It took a little bit of a wrong foot for everyone": Alex Corretja was left shocked by Rafael Nadal bombshell by Craig Tiley

Alex Corretja expressed his surprise at learning about the return of Rafael Nadal to the Australian Open through an announcement by Craig Tiley. He had expected Nadal to be the one confirming his return.

Tiley, the director of the Aussie Open, recently revealed that Nadal would be returning to the courts in 2024 by confirming his participation in the tournament. It is still unknown whether Nadal will compete in any of the early-year preparatory tournaments.

Following Tiley's announcement, Nadal took to his social media to confirm the news:

“I appreciate the vote of confidence from the Australian Open... I am practicing every day and working hard to come back asap,” Nadal Tweeted.

Corretja discussed the situation on Eurosport and expressed his surprise that the 22-time Grand Slam champion's return was announced by someone other than Nadal himself.

“I was very surprised that after Rafa took a while off, not playing tennis, I was thinking that he would be the one announcing when he’s going to be back. Which tournament he’s trying or, you know, getting ready to play. But the announcement, it took a little bit of a wrong foot for everyone: “oh, how come Craig Tiley is saying that?” he said.

“The first thing I do whenever I see ‘Nadal’ on the trending topics or whoever it is, I always go to his official account to see if they said something. In that case I felt like ‘Oh, nothing was said, that’s weird’. Then I realized and then when Rafa said, “Well, I am happy to see that they give me this confidence”. Then I realized, ok, this is going to be slowly and hopefully he’s going to announce he’s coming back,” Corretja added.

“But I am not expecting that before the middle of December, maybe, because that would be pretty much the time that I believe that he pretty much will know if he’s ready to start the season in Australia or not. But if he does that before that would be awesome. We are waiting for Rafa desperately,” Corretja said.