Nadal made his comeback from a year-long hip injury at the Brisbane International in January, with plans to compete at the Australian Open. However, he suffered a muscle tear near his hip at the Brisbane event and was sidelined once again.

Concerns had been raised in the build-up to Indian Wells as Nadal was spotted barely moving in a training session. Ahead of his clash with former world No. 3 Raonic, Nadal was often standing in one spot and hitting the ball instead of moving around after his defeat to Alcaraz.

Nadal lost 3-6 6-4 (14-12) to Alcaraz in front of a huge Netflix audience around the world, but admitted that he played “much better than expected” when interviewed courtside, but it was not deemed to be enough to compete at Indian Wells.