ARTICLES:

• Nadal Receives ‘Favourite Son Of Mallorca’ Award (via ATP World Tour)

“I appreciate being a Mallorcan,” said Nadal, who is the 11th person to receive the award. “The first thing that I do when I’m playing in other countries, whether I win or lose in the tournament, is to seek for the fastest way to go back to Mallorca.“

• Nadal to comeback stronger than before, says Moya (via The Times of India)

“He (Nadal) is starting to practice now. I have been in constant touch with him. He has been very unlucky with the injuries. Having said that, every time he has had an injury he has come back stronger than before. There is no reason to think it is going to be any different,” Moya, who is here for the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), told PTI. “For sure, he will be back at the top soon. For the past 10 years he has been winning with all the injuries,” he added.

• Rafael Nadal hopes to make next month’s Australian Open after surgery (via The Guardian)

“What I have to do this month is to get myself fit physically, progress my tennis as much as possible and lay the foundations to start well in Abu Dhabi and in Doha. [Then] take advantage of those tournaments to recover the competitiveness that I’ve not had for months due to the injuries.”

• Nadal, back to the future (via Marca)

“If I can work as hard as I need to and settle back into the game without any fitness problems or relapses, I’m sure I can get back to the kind of form I had before all this happened“, he said in a statement to Cadena Ser radio.

• Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal headline Qatar ExxonMobil Open (via sport360.com)

• 2014 Year in Review: Best of the ATP (via The Changeover)

Sadly, when we think of 2014, it will be one of too many years where Rafael Nadal’s season was cut short by injury. Starting with his unfortunate back injury during the Australian Open final, and ending with a training injury that kept him out of the US Open and the indoor season, Nadal spent far too much of yet another season on the sidelines. But, in the time he did spend on court, Nadal impressively extended his legacy as the king of the terre battue with a ninth French Open title at Roland Garros.

VIDEOS:

• Rafa Nadal: ¿Te gustaría venir a Buenos Aires conmigo?
• Best shots and points from the 2014 ATP season (via SI.com)

Nadal’s backpedaling inside-out forehand at Wimbledon. The commentary sums it up nicely: “I swear this guy runs backwards faster than a lot of players run forwards.”

• Best Hot Shots Of 2014 – Part One (via ATP World Tour)
• Nadal named Favorite Son of Mallorca (via IB3)
• Albert Costa siempre al lado de Nadal, ¡ahora Rafa te busca a ti! (via Telefonica)
• Rafa Nadal hace balance en Movistar TV de sus 10 años de éxitos (via Movistar)