Nadal return and Thiem’s qualification were not prevented by the East Pakobra

Even the well-known Austrian tennis player Dominic Thiem has to play a qualifier at the tournament in Brisbane, Australia. So well is this ATP tournament, that even the former Grand Slam winner of the US Open – the Viennese Thiem has to qualify. But the event of this tournament is undoubtedly the last comeback of the Spaniard Rafael Nadal to professional tennis.

Austria’s Dominic Thiem took a step towards advancing to the main event in the qualifying round of the ATP tour tournament in Brisbane, even though his match was disrupted by a venomous snake. The former US Open winner defeated host James McCabe 2:6, 7:6, 6:4 in the first round of qualifying after three converted match points, and also coped with a 40-minute interruption after organisers caught the snake on court. According to the tournament website, it was a dangerous Eastern Pakobra.

All of this shows that the tennis winter break is successfully over and the year-long tournament carousel will gradually get underway in the coming days. Brisbane is one of the first official venues of 2024, and this event has the added perfect embellishment of Rafael Nadal’s participation this year, with the Spaniard making his tennis debut in Brisbane after an enforced and almost year-long playing hiatus.

This event in Brisbane has quite a history, the first edition took place in 2009 and the Czech fan knows very well that Radek Stepanek celebrated the title then, defeating the Spaniard Verdasco in the final. The tournament is from the ATP250 category and we can watch it for the first time since 2019, when it subsequently dropped from the ATP calendar. The last “reigning” champion is Japan’s Kei Nishikori, who surprisingly defeated Russian magician Daniil Medvedev in the 2019 final.

This year, the leader of the field is Danish tennis player Holger Rune, who finished last season in great rhythm, played decent matches with Novak Djokovic and ended 2023 at the 2023 Tournament of Champions in Turin. In December, the Dane recruited Roger Federer’s former and long-time coach Severin Luthi to his team. There has to be some chemistry in the team of Dane Rune and “only” experienced Severin Luthi is not a guarantee of success.

The 47-year-old Luthi has never been a great tennis player and has focused more on his coaching career in his early youth. In 2005, just before his 30th birthday, he became the non-playing coach of the Swiss Davis Cup team, and in 2007 he started working with Roger Federer. This collaboration eventually became a highly successful and long-lasting friendship, with which came virtually every possible tennis success.

Holger Rune kicks off his mission in Brisbane against the home team Purcell. The Australian has had a truly banner year, winning fifty-two competitive matches last year, dominating three Challengers and recording solid results on the main tour as well.

Still, there is a big difference in quality between the two players and Rune should watch the first match of the new season. He will either face the talented Frenchman Van Assche in the eighth round, or he could be facing another of last season’s “big comets”, Shevchenko. A spicy quarter-final may come in a duel with Sebastian Korda, who is seeded in the Rune quarter of the tournament’s pavilion.

Sebastian Korda will face Hanfmann in the opening round, then he could play his compatriot Wolf. Korda played very well in Australia last year and will surely be confident with the opposition this year as well. Let’s not forget that the American with Czech roots knocked out Medvedev at the Australian Open last year and before that he even had a swing at Novak Djokovic at the season opener.

How should the quarterfinal duels look like?

Kokkinakis – Dimitrov

The second seed in Brisbane is Bulgarian Dimitrov (former boyfriend of Maria Sharapova). He will face Scotland’s Andy Murray in a spicy opening round. Dimitrov showed impressive tennis at the end of last season, playing the final in Paris, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.

Before that, we saw him in the semi-finals of the Masters in Shanghai. This will be the third time the two players have played together, with Murray winning eight times and Dimitrov winning four times. Anyway, since 2016, they have played only one duel together at the US Open 2023, and Dimitrov won there quite easily.

The bookmakers expect a similar result this year – they don’t think Andy Murray will be able to stop Dimitrov in his declining form now. The German Altmaier should await the Bulgarian in the eighth round and the quarter-finals are also playable for Dimitrov, where he will be challenged either by the local Kokkinakis, Hijikata, who was given a wild card by the organizers, or the clay player Etcheverry.

Safiullin – Fucsovics

The third seed in Brisbane is (rising) American star Ben Shelton, who will have a tough match with Russian Safiullin. Shelton is one of the players that tennis fans are curious about. He has had some solid results at the Grand Slams in 2023, won his first ATP title in Tokyo, and already has quite a few points to defend for last year’s Australian Open quarterfinal in January.

With Safiullin, Shelton can lose completely easily. However, if the third-seeded Shelton does make it through to the next round, he still cannot think of an easy opponent. He will be challenged by either Popyrin or O’Connell in the eventual eighth round, again opponents who can give Shelton quite a bit of heat.

Especially with Popyrin, it would be a very service-oriented match where anything can happen, indeed it will be about service even with Safiullin. Shelton could then play a possible quarter-final with Hungarian Fucsovics, who has a pretty decent draw, with youngster Arnaldi being the biggest threat in the opening round.

Karatsev – Humbert

The fourth seed in Brisbane is the Frenchman Humbert, who played quite decently last season, but the tennis public is interested in the player moving in the seventh hundred of the ranking. Of course, we are talking about none other than the returning Nadal, who starts in Brisbane on the basis of a protected ranking. Nadal has been relatively lucky to start the season and considering he is not eligible to be seeded, an opening duel with a qualifier is a solid win.

On the other side of the qualifier we find Cressy, Machac or Thiem, which are very uncomfortable opponents for the opening match almost after a year. In the second round, then, “Rafa” can expect Aslan Karatsev or home wild card holder Kubler – and these are opponents who can trouble Nadal a lot.

Rafael Nadal lost his first match after the break, but he will be perfectly prepared in Brisbane. He must be worried about the second, third and the next match where fatigue and physical wear and tear will show. As for Humbert, he will also play the opening round against the qualifier and then he will face Thompson or Vukic.

Tip for the last quarterfinal in Brisbane: Holger Rune – Sebastian Korda

Brisbane is a fairly decent tournament this year, and although it probably won’t be watched by fans of the big “BIG3”. Still, I don’t think Nadal can win the title right away. The other thing is that he has a fairly decent draw and was able to avoid Rune or Dimitrov at the start. It will be important for “Rafa” to maintain his game karma and put the fear of his big name into his opponents.

If I had to pick a winner in Brisbane, I would say – Denmark’s Holger Rune. I expect big things from him this season. And if he manages to dominate the very first tournament of the year, it would be very good for tennis. As far as “Rafa” is concerned, the future will show in the next tournaments.

Source: Brisbane International, ATP