Rafael Nadal continues injury recovery under uncle Toni's watchful eye

Rafael Nadal is consistently working on recovering from the injury that forced him to end the 2023 season prematurely.

Nadal underwent arthroscopic surgery to check his left psoas muscle in early June, with the first prognosis putting him on the sidelines for around five months.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion has recently begun gym work at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca. He was once again seen working there, this time with his uncle and former long-time coach, Toni Nadal.

Nadal's last match came at the 2023 Australian Open, where he lost to Mackenzie McDonald, 4-6, 4-6, 5-7, in the second round of the tournament.

The 37-year-old has previously said that he is aiming to return in time for the 2024 season, which will most likely be the last of his career.

"My idea, and my motivation, is to try to enjoy and try to say goodbye to all the tournaments that have been important for me in my tennis career during this year (2024), and just try to enjoy that, being competitive and enjoying being on court (which) is something that today is not possible," Nadal said in a press conference in June 2023.

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Rafael Nadal surpassed by Novak Djokovic after Cincinnati Masters 2023

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at the Laver Cup 2022

Novak Djokovic got one over Rafael Nadal after the 2023 Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, where he managed to notch up his 1,069th ATP singles win.

With the feat, the Serb moved up to third place on the all-time list, leaving Nadal and Ivan Lendl behind. He has achieved this feat with the best win-loss ratio among all the other names on the list, losing only 211 games to achieve a W/L index of 0.835.

Djokovic still has Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors in front of him. The Swiss maestro has 1,251 ATP singles wins to his name, with the American topping the list with 1,274 victories.

On his way to the third place on this list, Djokovic didn't have it easy at the Cincinnati Masters. He started off by defeating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who retired at 6-4, in the second round; and Gael Monfils, 6-3, 6-2, in the third round.

The Serb then went on to dispatch Taylor Fritz, 6-0, 6-4, in the quarterfinals, and Alexander Zverev, 7-6(5), 7-5, in the semifinals. In the final, Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the longest match in the tournament's history, 5-7, 7-6(7), 7-6(4).