Three-time champion Rafael Nadal will face former Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic in a testing first-round match at the BNP Paribas Open.

Monday’s draw for the year’s first ATP Masters 1000 of the year threw up an interesting challenge for the Spaniard, who reached the final in 2022 during his last visit to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Nadal leads Raonic 8-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head Series, but the Canadian won their lone meeting in the desert: a 4-6, 7-6(10), 7-5 classic in 2015.

Nadal will be making just his second appearance of the year, following a quarter-final run to the ATP 250 in Brisbane in the first week of the season.

Raonic, a former No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings, has been competitive in his two outings this year but has been let down by his 33-year-old body. At his last start, he pushed Jannik Sinner to a first-set tie-break in the Rotterdam quarter-finals before retiring. At the Australian Open he split sets with Alex de Minaur before retiring early in the third.

It has been a long time since fans spotted Rafael Nadal playing tennis tournaments. With the upcoming Indian Wells 2024, this long wait will be finally over. Now before his participation, Nadal finally revisited his iconic 2013 season in front of the fans. He chose one specific match which he played after a leave of months due to a knee injury.

He won the match, which made the event more emotional for him. Now after more than a decade, this Spaniard legend takes his jibe at the emotional tennis moment in his life. Do you want to know which match it is?

A reliable tennis source recently tweeted a clip, where Rafael Nadal is spotted speaking about his life’s one very special match. Sharing the clip, this source wrote- “‘It’s probably one of the most emotional victories of my career.’ @RafaelNadal reflects on his 2013 final against Del Potro #TennisParadise.”

In this clip, Nadal is spotted saying-“2013, I think the final against, Del Potro have been so special for me because it was the first tournament on a hard after more than a year because I had a very important injury on my knee. And so I was outside of the tour for eight months and then I came back. I play in South America, playing in Vina del Mar, then Sao Paulo and then in Acapulco that I played great in Acapulco but then I was not sure if I coming me here or not because the doctors told me better, you don’t go to play too hard, but I decided to come.”

The legendary Spaniard declared he would, though, support his son, Rafa Jr, if he does decide to follow in his footsteps by choosing to play tennis.

In October 2022, Nadal and his wife Mery Perello welcome their first child – a boy they named Rafael Nadal Perello. The Spaniard is known to be a very private person who prefers to enjoy his personal life away from the public eye, and he has rarely been seen in public with his son.

In a recent interview with Hola Spain, Nadal said: “My wife likes that I’m still playing tennis. She likes for us to have that experience with my son.”

“(On becoming a father) It’s a radical change. No doubt about that. I think everyone that’s a father or a mother knows that it’s a change. You have to adapt to it.”

During his TV interview with La Sexta earlier this week, Nadal addressed whether he would like to see his son try to follow his path in the sport when he grows up.

“I would prefer if he plays another sport, if I’m being honest… It pains me to say it with everything that tennis has given me,” the 37-year-old said.

“If he wants to play tennis, I will support him 100 percent. I would never veto his decision to play tennis, but if he plays another sport, even better.”

Tennis commentator Craig Shapiro recently revealed that Rafael Nadal’s academy has benefitted from the Spaniard’s ambassadorship deal with the Saudi Tennis Federation.

The state-owned tennis body of Saudi Arabia appointed Nadal as its ambassador in a bid to strengthen its presence in the sport. The announcement was made on January 15, 2024, just days after the 22-time Grand Slam champion announced his withdrawal from the Australian Open.

Notably, the Spaniard’s ownership of a team in the E1 World Championships has grabbed eyeballs following the announcement. The first grand prix of the E1 World Championships, which is an all-electric water boat racing competition, was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from February 2-3.

The Spaniard’s team, called Team Rafa, finished third in the standings after the conclusion of the first leg. Shapiro recently came across a fan question regarding the tennis icon’s probable motivation for being involved in the Jeddah racing event.

In response, Shapiro didn’t comment on the Spaniard’s association with the series but revealed that the financial gains he made from the Saudi Tennis Federation deal helped his academy get rid of ‘huge debt’

Apart from the 22-time Grand Slam champion, Tom Brady, Virat Kohli, and Didier Drogba are among the other notable sporting personalities who own an E1 team. The subsequent races will be held in Venice, Marbella, Monaco, Geneva, Rotterdam, and Hong Kong.

As an ambassador of the Saudi Tennis Federation (STF), Rafael Nadal would be responsible for mentoring budding champions of the Gulf nation. He is also set to establish a branch of Rafa Nadal Academy in the country. Currently, his academies are situated in Kuwait, Greece, Mexico, and his hometown of Manacor in Mallorca, Spain.

After taking over as the top representative of STF, the Spaniard expressed his excitement over the new role, saying: