Rafael Nadal’s first Grand Slam match in more than seven months is on the horizon. He is coming back from a painful left foot problem that limited him to one tournament over the last half of last season and he got COVID-19 in December.
Plenty to talk about, right? This is, after all, the owner of 20 major championships and one of the most significant figures in the history of tennis. His mere presence at an Australian Open pre-tournament news conference Saturday was newsworthy — or, rather, would have been on pretty much any other occasion.
Ah, yes, the run-up to
