London - Rafael Nadal, the man who until five weeks ago dominated men's tennis and had relegated the legendary Roger Federer to second place, is now in his native Mallorca, counting the days for a return to the tour but still far from holding a racket. "He is not playing tennis. He only touched his racket the week before Wimbledon, for training and exhibition games," Nadal's spokesman Benito Perez Barbadillo told the German Press Agency dpa.
Nadal is working hard and with great dedication to return to the tour, but he is also trying to relax an exhausted mind. That is why he plays golf whenever he can, that is why he recently spent two days aboard a yacht in the Mediterranean.
But his priority is to return to tennis - as soon as possible, but also avoiding a relapse in his knee injury.
"Rafa is in Manacor alongside his physiotherapist and his physical trainer, working intensely on his recovery. That recovery was pushed to try to make it to Wimbledon, but Rafa was not ready for it either physically or mentally, especially mentally," Perez Barbadillo admitted.
Nadal's life in the past few weeks shows just how fast things can change in sport. In the afternoon of May 31, when he went onto centre court at the French Open to play the Swede Robin Soderling, Nadal had the tennis world at his feet.
A few hours later, once his defeat had been sealed, everything changed. And that was when the Spaniard's ordeal started.
Nadal could not win his fifth consecutive trophy at Roland Garros, and he declined to defend his title Wimbledon due to problems in his right knee.
Federer won a first French Open title and then went on to win his sixth trophy at the All England Club - completing Nadal's plight by taking back the number one spot in the ATP rankings that the Spaniard had held since August 18, 2008.
One question is dominant now: when will Nadal play again?
The idea, as his entourage told dpa, is to get to the US Open that starts on August 31 in perfect form. There is a chance that Nadal's tennis may be put to the test from August 8 at the Masters 1000 in Montreal. That way he would avoid returning to the tour directly on the hot New York cement.
But you never know with Nadal. Spain's Davis Cup captain Albert Costa asked him two weeks ago whether he could look forward to perhaps having him in the tie against Germany that starts Friday in Marbella.
Nadal, 23, did not want to utter a determined "no" - or perhaps he just did know how to do it - and asked to have until Sunday to make his decision. Days later he convinced himself that it made no sense to rush his return.
July is just starting, and, given Nadal's passion for playing tennis, nothing can be ruled out - not even the chance that he may decide at the last minute to play a tournament on European clay.
As he awaits his return to the courts - in a context in which his parents' separation is also affecting the very family-oriented Nadal - tennis is wondering who will be king by the time the season ends.
For now it is Federer, but Nadal's powerful left arm still holds an essential part of the answer.
