Miami miss for Rafael Nadal but Netflix Slam gets green light after recent injury woes

One big name miss from the Entry List for the 2024 Miami Open was a certain Rafael Nadal with hope seemingly extinguishing that he will compete in both iterations of the Sunshine Double as the Spaniard seemingly will prioritise the clay court season.

Nadal has entered into and been confirmed for Indian Wells, but part of that is that he will play the Netflix Slam which features Carlos Alcaraz in the run-up to that in Las Vegas which includes sessions where he will charge $150,000 for fans as well as their exhibition match.

Headlined by Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, the Miami Open is entered by the whole top 77. But unlike Indian Wells, Nadal has not been announced in tandem. This means likely he will head towards such tournaments as Monte-Carlo and Barcelona.

He has previously indicated that he'd rather use a protected ranking to enter these tournaments which he hasn't so a wildcard is likely out of the question. It would represent only two tournaments played up until the clay court season with Nadal opening his season in Brisbane before withdrawing from the Australian Open.

From there, he has attempted to return this week in Doha, but withdrew before the tournament began as he suffered a setback. But with a final Roland Garros swansong on the horizon, he will put all his stock into that and seemingly only Indian Wells will get the tennis superstar on their Entry Lists as setbacks have prevented him from playing elsewhere.

“My priority objective is to get to the clay season in the best possible way,” Nadal said in a recent interview with Spain’s El Objetivo. “I hope to be in Indian Wells, it will possibly be the last time I play it and it is a very special tournament for me.”