Rafael Nadal has won a different type of warm-up in sunny Mallorca before he makes his tennis return at the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open in the coming weeks.
Nadal who is known as a keen golfer outside of the tennis court competed and sealed victory at the 2024 Balearic Mid-Amateur Golf Championship in Mallorca, Spain ahead of his return to tennis which will comprise of an exhibition in Las Vegas against Carlos Alcaraz before playing in the Sunshine Double.
The legendary Spaniard halted his tennis comeback at this week's Qatar Open which saw the field severely weakened by the withdrawal of both Nadal and top seed Daniil Medvedev.
But Nadal has become a regular feature at this event competing in 2020, 2021 and 2022 editions. The two-day tournament has seen him finish fourth in 2020, sixth in 2021 and in 2022, he finished second. But he came back to the tournament with a bang heading up the men's scratch classification. He clinched the title by seven strokes ahead of 74 other players.