The hardcourts have taken their toll on Rafael Nadal's knees, the Spaniard pulling out of his Australian Open quarter-final against Andy Murray and being advised to take a month's rest. The Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships too doesn't figure on Nadal's radar and while most critics are sceptical of his chances of ever regaining that aura of invincibility, his Spanish compatriot Tommy Robredo thinks otherwise.

Talking exclusively to XPRESS, the former World No 5 said. "For sure Rafa will be back. Once the clay arrives, he'll be fit enough to win all the tournaments as he did a couple of years ago. Then everybody will say he's strong again."

Robredo added: "Obviously he's a player who prefers to play on clay than hard and he has been injured some weeks. Anyway he's always in the quarters and semis of the big tournaments.

"Now the top-four players are very close. A couple of years ago it was only Federer and him but now Murray and Djokovic are very strong as well, so if he doesn't play a couple weeks he can drop a little bit, but then he's going to be up again when he comes back."

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