From April 15 to 21, the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona takes place. Title holder, Carlos Alcaraz has announced his withdrawal.
The Barcelona tournament, the Godó, will see the return of the master of the place Rafael Nadal. Twelve times winner in the Catalan capital, the native of Mallorca announced during a press conference this Monday April 15 his return to competition, a little more than four months after his last official match during the Brisbane tournament at the beginning of January. He will enter the fray on Tuesday thanks to his protected ranking, against the Italian Flavio Cobolli, 62nd player in the world. But the hardest part will surely be moving on in the event of victory, he who was injured in Brisbane in the third round against Jordan Thompson. He could face Alex de Minaur in the second round.
The announcement of Nadal’s return coincides with the withdrawal, Sunday April 14, of double title holder Carlos Alcaraz. The world number three had already had to give up competing last week at the masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo due to pain in his right forearm. As a particularly busy summer approaches, where he will have to defend his title at Wimbledon before the Games in Paris, all this with Roland-Garros at the beginning of June and the US Open at the end of August, the native of Murcia wants to preserve himself.
Other headliners present this week in Barcelona include Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas. On the French side, Ugo Humbert and Arthur Fils are seeded and exempt from the first round, while Lucas Van Asche and Hugo Grenier will begin their tournament this Tuesday. From this Monday the first rounds begin, with Alexandre Muller and Harold Mayot on the French side. Finally, Arthur Cazaux had to give up while serving to win the first set after seeing his ankle turn in a fall.
