Rafael Nadal's last Indian Wells win 10 years ago - and what's next for the 22-time Grand Slam champion

Watching back the 2013 Indian Wells final between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro there is one word that keeps coming to mind: How? How was Del Potro’s forehand that good? Ad And how did Nadal keep on retrieving even the most punishing of those forehands? ATP Indian WellsNadal withdraws from Indian Wells and Miami Open due to injury28/02/2023 AT 17:56 It was one of the great Masters finals of the current era – and one that preceded arguably Nadal’s greatest season on tour. The 22-time Grand Slam champion will not be back at Indian Wells this month due to injury, but 10 years on from his stunning victory in 2013, we look at what it meant for him then, and what the future holds for him now.

Comeback kid When Nadal returned after 222 days out with injury on February 5, contending for his first hard-court title in almost three years at Indian Wells was probably not on his mind. The main focus was how his troublesome knee would hold up.

On clay it looked good enough as Nadal made the final in his first event back, won in Sao Paulo, and then crushed top seed David Ferrer in the final of the Mexican Open. “I would have never imagined playing at the level that I played today,” Nadal said after the final.

“I'm leaving happy and surprised.” Nadal had said during the tournament that the knee was still “bothering” him at times, but he was ready to test it out on the hard courts. «Indian Wells is one of my favourite tournaments and I want to keep competing because the knee is holding up and my heart says that I can do it, and compete is what I want to do now.” If Nadal’s Latin American clay-court return was a way to ease himself back into action on his favourite surface, Indian Wells was going full throttle again.