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Rafael Nadal will begin his preparations for a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam at next month's Citi Open in Washington. Nadal will be making his debut at the ATP 500 tournament following his withdrawal from Wimbledon and the Olympics.
Citi Open chairman, Mark Ein, recently spoke about the buzz generated by Rafael Nadal's forthcoming participation in Washington. Ein also revealed the steps it took to attract Nadal to the event for the first time in his career.
While speaking to Tennis Channel, Ein explained that signing Nadal up for the event has created an "unprecedented" level of interest in the local community. He also revealed tickets were sold out the minute they were put on sale.
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"It is indescribable (Rafael Nadal making his debut in Washington)," Mark Ein said. "I mean the level of interest in this event in unprecedented in our five decades of this tournament. The whole town is buzzing, our community is buzzing.
"Tickets have been sold out the minute they went on sale. The extra that we could put on sale, went on sale. And we have a waiting list of 15,000 people who want to come. I think that's indicative of the amount of interest there is in seeing this great icon of our game in Washington for the first time."
Mark Ein was then asked to shed some light on what it to took to convince Rafael Nadal to sign up for the Citi Open for the first time in his career. Ein pointed out that ever since the Citi Group took over the event in 2019, they have aimed at attracting the world's top players.
According to the Citi Open chairman, they have invested a lot of money into the tournament to give players a "world-class experience".
"Yeah, you know we took over the event in 2019 and one of our top goals was to make this an event that the top players would wanna come to," Ein said.
"Obviously, Washington itself is a great city and I guess Washington is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the World, so we should be a place that top players wanna come," he added. "We've invested a huge amount to make this a world-class experience for players, I think that helped lay the groundwork (when discussing with Rafael Nadal)."
However, Ein also claimed that Nadal chose to sign up for the Citi Open as he felt it was the "best place" to begin his preparations for the US Open, where he will fight to win his 21st Major.
"And then to his (Rafael Nadal's) credit he was looking at how he could best prepare for the record-setting 21st Grand Slam, he looked at the schedule and decided that Washington was the best place to start," Ein said. "Obviously, when we got the call, we were just overwhelmed by the prospect. We are thrilled to welcome him."
Which players are expected to join Rafael Nadal in Washington & when is the draw?
Some of the top players expected to join Rafael Nadal at the Citi Open are Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jannik Sinner, Nick Kyrgios, Alex de Minaur, Aslan Karatsev, Kei Nishikori, and Milos Raonic.
The draw is scheduled to be held on Friday, 30 July, while main-draw action is set to begin on 2 August.
What is the foot injury that has troubled Rafael Nadal over the years? Check here
