There are tennis tournaments with good names that nobody really needs to be interested in.

For example the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

This is not, as the name suggests, a world championship, but simply an invitation tournament in Abu Dhabi, in which eight tennis professionals play in front of a few spectators and earn a lot of money for it.

An official title is not awarded to the two women who play the final right at the beginning, as well as six men, only a handsome trophy in the form of a pearl.

Thomas Klemm

Sports editor.

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The fact that the exhibition fights on their thirteenth edition nevertheless aroused a certain amount of interest in the past few days was due to a man who had not been able to show himself on the professional tour for a long time.

Rafael Nadal, forced to do nothing for months due to a persistent injury to his left foot, made his first attempts to walk against well-known competitors in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

The success remained manageable, but the Spaniard was nevertheless satisfied: “It was a positive start.

I played better than I would have believed a few weeks ago. ”Since his semi-final defeat by Roland Garros at the beginning of June against Novak Djokovic, Nadal only tried his hand at the Washington ATP tournament briefly in August and then his season prematurely after a manageable 29 matches completed.

In Abu Dhabi, the world number six started without having played a set in training beforehand.

After the rehab on his home island Mallorca, he first got himself in good shape: “I did controlled exercises for the foot.” The results in the Gulf state were consequently as expected.

The 35-year-old Nadal lost his first game against the one year younger Scotsman Andy Murray, who had also seen better times, 3: 6 and 5: 7.

In the following game for third place on Saturday, the Spaniard lost to the Canadian Denis Shapovalov 7: 6, 3: 6, 6:10.

The show tournament was won by Russian Andrej Rublev, who defeated Murray 6: 4 and 7: 6 in the final.

Positive corona test

After returning to Spain, however, there was bad news for Nadal: As the 35-year-old announced on Twitter, he tested positive for the corona virus in a PCR test.

He then immediately went into domestic isolation. 

For Nadal, this is a serious setback four weeks before the start of the Australian Open in Melbourne (from January 17), where he actually wanted to leave like other tennis professionals in the middle of the month.

The tournament in Australia is the first highlight of the season of the new tennis year.

“Because of this situation, I have to be completely flexible in my schedule and will examine my options depending on my development,” wrote Nadal with a view to his plans for Australia. 

The Austrian Dominic Thiem, who canceled his participation in Abu Dhabi at short notice, is now planning a comeback first in Sydney and then in Melbourne.

The Austrian has not played since the grass season due to a wrist injury.

Although he is now painless, he does not achieve his full potential during training.

"Only if I can beat the forehand 100 percent will I go onto the field," said Thiem.

It remains unclear whether world number one Novak Djokovic will travel to Australia.

Only vaccinated people are allowed to compete in Melbourne, but the Serb remains silent about his vaccination status.

He has attracted attention these days because the post office in his home country has dedicated a series of stamps to him.