Get ready for the ATP 250 first-round doubles match of the century.
Regardless of how this match progresses and how it ends, the VTR Open first-round doubles match featuring Juan Monaco and Rafael Nadal vs. Frantisek Cermak and Lukas Dlouhy will make headlines around the world. After all, it signals Nadal’s first competitive tennis match since the Wimbledon second round.
“I’m looking forward to competing again and taking part in a top-level tournament,” Nadal explained. “I hope the knee responds well and that it tolerates the demands of professional competition. “There are still days when it bothers me but it is evident that I will need time before the knee is used to top-level competition again. I’m looking forward to returning after seven months out, to training and coming up against the other players in Chile.”
Cermak and Dlouhy, who cannot expect much crowd support in this one, have played with each other in three previous tournaments and own a 2-3 lifetime match record. Cermak is ranked 35th in the world in doubles and Dlouhy comes in at No. 57.
This is also the fourth career event for the Nadal-Monaco team. Their best-ever showing is a quarterfinal finish at the 2008 Paris Masters.
These two teams have never faced one another, but all four players have some familiarity. Monaco is 1-2 lifetime in doubles against Cermak and 0-2 against Dlouhy. Nadal is 4-1 against Cermak and 2-0 against Dlouhy, with four of his six combined wins coming in super-tiebreakers.
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