French Open champion Rafael Nadal is reportedly already in training on grass in preparation for a possible crack at Wimbledon.
Nadal, who won his 14th French Open title earlier this month, was a doubt to play the third Grand Slam of the year after undergoing treatment on a chronic foot problem.
He was pictured on crutches after the treatment and hadn’t given any commitment to being able to play at Wimbledon, which starts on June 27.
But according to Spanish news outlet EFE, Nadal is training on grass in Mallorca ahead of the ATP Tour event on the island next week.
In the past few days Nadal’s uncle Toni has given his thoughts saying that he is confident that his nephew will be playing at SW19.
“Wimbledon starts in less than two weeks, so let’s see if my nephew is there or not. I think that he will be and that the treatment goes well,” Toni said in quotes published by Eurosport Spain.
Nadal, a winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, has won Wimbledon twice, the most recent in 2010 which is his longest drought in a Grand Slam.
Despite winning the Australian Open and the French, Nadal is still outside of the world’s top two, with the new rankings confirming that for the first time since 2003 none of the men’s Big Four (Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray) are in the top two.
Djokovic has dropped down to three and will likely drop further with it already being confirmed that Wimbledon will not have ranking points after its decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s event.
Nadal sits in fourth with Daniil Medvedev top and Alexander Zverev ats a career-high No. 2 in the rankings.
Nadal is halfway to winning a Calendar Slam for the first time in his career. The last man to win all four majors in the same season was Rod Laver in 1969.
