Rafael Nadal has confirmed he will be playing the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati next week in preparation for the US Open.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion pulled out of this week’s Canadian Open due to an ongoing abdominal issue.
However, he is set to play in Cincinnati for the first time since 2017.
In a post on Instagram on Wednesday evening, Nadal, who is at home in Mallorca, wrote: “Very happy to play again in Cincy. Flying there tomorrow.”
Nadal is expected to be the second seed at the ATP 1000 tournament behind world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev out due to injury.
Nadal has not played since withdrawing from his Wimbledon semi-final against Nick Kyrgios.
He aggravated the abdominal issue during his five-set quarter-final win over Taylor Fritz and withdrew from Montreal as he preferred to take a “conservative” approach.
“I have been practising for a while now without serving and started with serves four days ago,” said Nadal in a statement.
“Everything has been going well. However yesterday, after my normal practice, I felt a slight bother on my abdominal and today it was still there.
“After speaking with my doctor, we prefer to take things in a conservative way and give a few more days before starting to compete.”
Nadal will be bidding to win a record-extending 23rd Grand Slam title at the US Open, which starts on August 29, after sealing Australian Open and French Open titles earlier in 2022.
He hasn’t played the final Grand Slam of the year in New York since winning the event in 2019.
Nadal also made the semi-finals in 2018 and lifted the trophy in 2017.
