This one’s not up in the air: Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are both on the entry list for Indian Wells, which begins on March 6.
Rafole, reunited! Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are en route to the United States for the spring hard-court season … together!
Djokovic broke the news (and the internet) by posting a selfie that’s combined for 42 Grand Slam singles titles to his social media accounts on Friday. “Great company on the way to USA,” Djokovic wrote alonside the snapshot of the two on a plane, along with the hashtags #vamos and #idemo.
Both players are making welcome returns to U.S. soil for the spring hard-court season. Nadal has been out of action since getting injured against Jordan Thompson in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International last month—just his third match in nearly a full calendar year—while Djokovic is returning to compete at both Indian Wells and Miami for the first time in four years.
After missing the Australian Open, and withdrawing from his expected comeback tournament in Doha this week, Nadal is expected to play Carlos Alcaraz—who shared his own positive injury update on social media earlier this week after rolling his ankle on Tuesday at the Rio Open—in an exhibition in March 3 in Las Vegas before joining Djokovic in the draw at the first of the two Sunshine Double events, the ATP Masters 1000 in Indian Wells.
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Novak Djokovic is on the initial entry lists for both Indian Wells and Miami; after they were canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Djokovic was unable to play the tournaments for the next three years as a consequence of various U.S. immigration regulations surrounding vaccination for COVID-19, for which he is unvaccinated. (He also missed the 2022 US Open as a result of this.) The U.S. government ended its COVID-19 vaccination requirements for international travellers on May 11, 2023.
Nadal is a three-time champion in Indian Wells, in 2007, 2009 and 2013, but has never won in Miami, where he is a five-time finalist. He was not on the initial entry list for Miami, which was released earlier this week, but that does not preclude him from receiving a wild card before the tournament begins on March 17. However, that seems unlikely; Nadal hasn’t played in Miami since 2017, and he told Spanish journalist Ana Pastor last week that he’ll choose his schedule carefully, with his chief goal being peak fitness for the clay-court season and Roland Garros, which he has won 14 times.
