Rafael Nadal Makes Debut In Washington D.C.; Kyrgios Looks To Defend Title

Rafael Nadal has come to Washington D.C. For the first time in his career, Nadal will be in the nation’s capital to play the Washington summer hard court event.

The Spaniard, who passed up Wimbledon and the Olympic, in playing his first event since going down to Novak Djokovic in an epic French Open semifinal over 45 days ago.

Nadal’s last hard court title came at Acapulco 2020 just before the pandemic hit. This will be his first hard court event since the Australian Open, and first non-Masters event in the USA ever!

Joining Nadal in a very deep field will be seeds Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alex De Minaur, Grigor Dimitrov, Jannik Sinner, Dan Evans, Cameron Norrie and Reilly Opelka.

Sebastian Korda, Kevin Anderson, Frances Tiafoe and 2019 champion Nick Kyrgios are also in the field.

After a bye, Nadal could meet Jack Sock in his opener, then Lloyd Harris or Tennys Sandgren. In the quarters, it could be Norrie, Alexander Bublik or Sam Querrey with Dimitrov, Evans or Taylor Fritz in the semifinals.

Querrey opens against Kei Nishikori, Kyrgios faces Mackenzie McDonald and Anderson meets young American Jensen Brooksby.

The tournament is open to fans and the Nadal faithful came in droves to see their hero.

This is the line to see @RafaelNadal practice at the 2021 @CitiOpen! pic.twitter.com/l4bBK37RhI

— TennisAtlantic (@TennisAtlantic) July 31, 2021

The 2020 event was not held due to the pandemic, but in 2019 Kyrgios upset Daniil Medvedev in two tiebreakers.

There is no women’s event this year. That event was moved to Poland and played last month.