On January 7, Beijing time, the quarterfinals of the ATP250 Melbourne station were held. 20 Grand Slam winner Nadal played against Dutch player Grickspool. Before this match, Grixpool suddenly announced that he was retired from the game due to injury, so that Nadal won without a fight and reached the final four in his first leg of return.
This is Nadal's first comeback since last year's Washington D.C., and last season Nadal suffered from a foot injury that caused him to miss important matches such as Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open. After 5 months of recovery, Nadal finally made a comeback in the Australian season.
As the top seed, Nadal, bye in the first round of the tournament, in the second round he faced the world's 104th ranked Birankis, Nadal won two straight sets to usher in the season. The victory was significant for Nadal, his 21st consecutive season on the Tour, behind Federer among active players.
With his quarter-final opponents withdrawing, Nadal was able to reach the final four without a fight. This is the second time nadal has reached the final four in a tour hard court game after nearly 14 months, and the last time he reached the final four in a hard court event was back to the 2020 year-end finals.
Nadal will then face Finnish rising star Rusuwori in the semi-finals, who eliminated Morkan in straight sets to advance. Nadal will be on his way to the 127th Tour final of his career.