Rafael Nadal plans to return to pro tennis in November | The Break

Rafael Nadal could be back on the courts before the end of the year. David Ferrer reveals Rafa is eyeing the Davis Cup final in November as a potential return. We have got the details. Plus we are looking ahead to Wednesday at the Open. The break it starts right now. What's up guys? Erin Cascarelli here. You are watching The Break presented by Evian. Now this week Davis Cup captain David Ferrer did an interview with tennis news outlet Clay. In the interview Ferrer spoke about his longtime friend and rival Rafael Nadal. He revealed that Rafa wanted to make a comeback to pro tennis at the Davis Cup finals in November saying quote, He was the one who once told me my goal is to have a goal to reach the Davis Cup at the end of the year if you qualify. And he is in that process. And be careful my goal is not to convince him. He is the one who told me that. Nadal has been out of the game since January with a hip injury. In May he did announce that 2024 would be his final pro season. And in June he did undergo surgery to repair the damage to that hip. Now the recovery period was set at five months or the beginning of November. David Ferrer also shared that Rafa's recovery is going well. He is staying injury free. And he does want to come back strong. So we ask how realistic is Rafa's participation in the Davis Cup final? Well a few things need to happen. First Spain actually needs to qualify for the final. They are in the same group as Serbia, the Czech Republic and Korea. And the group stage does occur from September 12th to the 17th. Second Rafa needs to stay healthy through the end of November. The finals are scheduled for November 21st through 26th in Malaga, Spain. And according to Ferrer, he will not make a return if he doesn't think he can play his best and if he can win. So if all goes to plan, we could see Rafa playing for Spain. The chance to see a potential Rafael Nadal-Carlos Alcaraz doubles pairing in their home country of Spain would be incredible. We do have our fingers crossed. We've got five more days of U.S. Open tennis and things are heating up in New York. Here are the Wednesday matches you don't want to miss. Newly minted World No. 1 Arena Sabalenka, she will play Qinwen Zhang for a spot in the semifinals. Now they've never played each other before, so expect some hard-hitting tennis and a lot of winners. Wimbledon champ Marketa Vondrosova, she looks to get her 12th straight major win as she is scheduled to face American Madison Keyes. Maddie is hoping to reach the semifinals at the Open for the third time in her career. And over on the men's side, Carlos Alcaraz will play Alexander Zverev in the quarters. They have played five times before, Zverev winning three of those matches. The German coming off an incredible five-set win over Sinner, and he does look to defeat Alcaraz for the second time in a major quarterfinal. The first, of course, coming at Roland Garros back in 2022. And then we've got Daniil Medvedev playing his friend Andrei Rublev. Daniil holding a 5-2 record against Andrei, but he has lost two of their last three matches. Andrei is trying to break a quarterfinal curse. He is 0-8 in major quarterfinals. Daniil, on the other hand, is 6-1 in major quarters. We cannot wait to see who makes the final four. Catch Tennis Channel's daily U.S. Open pre-show at 9 a.m. Eastern time. We will see you tomorrow.