Rafael Nadal has been back on the court once again after practising with Alexandra Eala not too long ago.
Last week, Nadal picked up a racket for the first time in a year to hit with rising Filipino star Alexandra Eala at the Rafa Nadal Academy.
Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, retired from the sport in 2024 and recently revealed the key reason behind that decision.
Since then, he has continued to oversee the running of the Rafa Nadal Academy, which he founded in 2016.
On Friday, the Spaniard practised with another of the Academy’s talents.
Rafael Nadal practises with Alina Korneeva
Rafael Nadal has been practising with rising Russian star Alina Korneeva, who has won junior Grand Slam singles titles at the Australian Open and French Open.
In the post, Nadal referenced 17 French Open champions. Nadal, a winner of the tournament on 14 occasions, stood with Korneeva and Anabel Medina.
Medina, Korneeva’s coach, won the French Open Women’s Doubles title twice in her career – in 2008 and 2009. Medina joined Korneeva’s coaching team in January this year.
Korneeva, a high-profile student at the Rafa Nadal Academy, has a bright future ahead of her. She is a former junior world number one, and at 18 years old, she has already risen to world number 213.
The Russian has won ITF titles in Morocco, South Africa and Portugal, and looks set for a big 2026 season.
Alina Korneeva’s most recent tournament
Alina Korneeva most recently competed at the Jiangxi Open in China on October 27, where she drew former world number 19 Hangyu Guo.
The Russian started strong, taking the opening set 6-3. However, she was unable to close out the match, losing the next two sets 6-2, 7-6.
This was a particularly tough loss when considering the circumstances of the third set tiebreak: Guo won the tiebreak 8-6.
Has there ever been a sadder retirement than Rafael Nadal’s in 2024?
Guo was knocked out in the next round by Zhuoxuan Bai.
World number 62 Anna Blinkova won the tournament, defeating another young star – Lilli Tagger – in the final.
