Rafael Nadal to play more grass court tournaments

Rafael Nadal has chosen to play in Stuttgart Open, an ATP 250 Championship on grass, in addition to confirming his participation for Aegon Championship to be held at Queen’s Club in London, in the build-up to Wimbledon this year. The Stuttgart Open, originally a clay court tournament – converted to a grass court this year, is to be held in the 3-week window between the French Open and Wimbledon.

Marin Cilic, Feliciano Lopez, Tommy Haas and Marcos Baghdatis will be participating in the German grass court open. Stuttgart is the second grass court tournament in Germany other than the ATP 500 held in Halle. 

Apart from playing in Stuttgart, the Spaniard will also play the Aegon Championship which has been upgraded to an ATP 500 this year as players like Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov, Nick Kyrgios, Milos Raonic, Lleyton Hewitt and Cilic have also confirmed their participation at the grass court tournament already.  

Great to be back in Germany: Nadal

“I am very happy to play again in the city of Stuttgart. Last time I played there was a different event, on clay. This time it will be on grass and really looking forward to playing there. Great to be back playing soon in Germany.” ,Nadal commented.

Rafael Nadal has been going through a bad run on grass for the last few years, having not made past the fourth round at Wimbledon for three years after being a finalist at the championships back in 2011. He was upset in Wimbledon by Lukas Rosol in the second round in 2012, Steve Darcis in the opening round in 2013, Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round in 2014. He was also beaten by Dustin Brown at Queens last year. Since 2012, the Spaniard has played just 10 matches on grass, winning only 5 of them.

Nadal will look to getting more exposure on grass court this season to improve his form on the surface and better the otherwise dismal show he has been putting up of late at the Wimbledon.