World no 3 tennis player Daniil Medvedev admitted that Rafael Nadal is still expected to be a “great challenge” for him in the next season when the Spaniard returns from a long injury layoff.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion will make his comeback after a year-long absence from the competition due to an iliopsoas injury in his left leg at the Brisbane International, before competing at the 2024 Australian Open.

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The 37-year-old Nadal is undoubtedly coming towards the end of his career, but Medvedev, while discussing the return of the Spaniard with The National admitted he was still a daunting prospect.

“It’s just that all the seasons that he played he wins a lot of matches and doesn’t lose many. It’s very tough to beat him,” Medvedev told The National.

“Actually, with Rafa maybe I even had even less success than with Novak in a way. But we had some tight matches where I felt like I could win and maybe he got the edge in the end. So, for me it’s going to be a great challenge if I have to face him.

“I don’t know at the moment his shape, no one knows, and how he’s going to handle. But from what I saw, he seems to be doing good and that’s great for tennis,” he added.

Medvedev had won four ATP titles but failed to win a Grand Slam title in 2023. He came close to the US Open but lost to Djokovic in the final. Medvedev had faced off with Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner a combined 12 times in 2023, winning four of those encounters.

Besides Djokovic, Alcaraz was the other player to win the major this year, but Medvedev and Sinner are considered best of the rest.

“For sure if we take last year and many, many different tournaments, we did separate a little bit from the rest at one point of the season and especially at the end, regarding the points,” said Medvedev.

“But I do think that this also shows that every season can be different. Stefanos (Tsitsipas) made a final in Australian Open; for different reasons had a tougher end of the season, but he can come back there and pass me, Sinner or Carlos or Novak, anyone.

“So, I would be still careful with something like this. I myself was out of top 10 last year, in the beginning of the season.

“The only thing we’re sure is Novak is always there. I could be out of 10, Novak is always there. So hopefully I can be part of this top four and whoever the other three guys and I’m going to try to do it,” added the world no. 3 Medvedev.