Rafael Nadal Ready To Play At Roger Federer’s Hometown

Rafael Nadal recently admitted he is feeling scared about his upcoming appearance at the Swiss Indoors tournament after a decade with the threat of an impending appendix surgery. The Spaniard, who last played in 2004 at the hometown of the top seed and World's No. 2, Roger Federer, starts the tournament against a qualifier on Monday. Currently, the nine-time French Open title holder has been on antibiotics therapy, which will hopefully postpone the appendectomy for a couple more weeks.

"It's going to be one of the most dangerous first rounds in a 500 tournament that I've played in a long time," Nadal admitted after a two-hour hit at the St Jakobshalle. "I am not 100 per cent sure what is going to happen tomorrow."

The 28-year-old further claimed that he has not practiced well enough and his body feels more tired when he plays. He is unsure and scared how his body reacts with the demands of the game. However, he was told by doctors that he it is safe for him to play despite the appendicitis, which flared during the Asian ATP swing.

Although his trophy chances are slim, especially that Roger Federer has won the title five times, Rafael Nadal remains optimistic. He is positive the Swiss Indoors tournament will improve his game but he is also aware that it will be a tough comeback.

Meanwhile, although the the 17-time Grand Slam champion is set to return to Basel next week, he was seen preparing for the Davis Cup finals instead of practising indoors for the Basel event. The Swiss Maestro took to Twitter to post a photo of dirty shoes on clay captioned, "Claycourt practice #dirtysocks #sliding #grinding."

After displacing the Rafael Nadal and becoming the World's No. 2, Federer claimed that he will not go out of his way to chase the year-end world No. 1 ranking. He further revealed that he will think and discuss his schedule with his team when he comes back to Switzerland. He reiterated, however, that nothing will change in his schedule.