Rafael Nadal’s back against the Australian Open wall

Rafael Nadal has been nursing a tight back for a fortnight and is far from confident of creating history at the Australian Open.

Rafael Nadal has only just begun serving in practise as he deals with a back problem

Spanish champion Rafael Nadal has been nursing a tight back for a fortnight and is far from confident about his hopes of creating history at the Australian Open, beginning on Monday.

A second Australian crown would enable the 34-year-old to surpass Roger Federer at the top of the major table — they are both sitting on 20. But over the weekend, Nadal spent as much time on the physiotherapy table as he is on court, trying to loosen the tension in his back.

“Of course, it’s not the ideal situation to start a tournament with problems. A demanding tournament like this one, playing best-of-five, everything,” he said.

“The only thing that I can do is stay positive, work on the recovery, do all the things that I can, then hope the situation will be improving. Of course, it worries me a little bit.”

In recent days, several — among them former Australian Open champions Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Victoria Azarenka and Stan Wawrinka — have withdrawn from warm-up events, blaming injury concerns.

Those withdrawals were effectively to ensure they are in peak fitness to compete in the Open, with the stars satisfied they had played enough preparatory matches.

There is a clear difference between their niggling issues and the predicament facing Nadal, even though he described the problem as nothing particularly serious.

It is rare that the Spanish legend, who is scheduled to face Serbian Laslo Djere in an opening round match on Tuesday, gives anything away when discussing his health.

On one occasion he managed to make a run to the Australian Open final, only for it to be later revealed he had injured a knee just days before the event and was in significant doubt to play at all.

The 13-time Roland Garros champion said he would prefer that to be the case this time around, but his failure to play at all in the ATP Cup brought the problem to light.

“Normally I’m not a big fan of finding excuses or reasons about why this other thing is happening,” he said.

The Spaniard remains the third favourite for the Australian Open at $6.50 behind world No 1 Novak Djokovic ($2.20) and Russian Daniil Medvedev ($5.50).

The latter teamed up with Andrey Rublev, an emerging contender, to cap a dominant ATP Cup performance, beating Italy in Sunday’s final on Rod Laver Arena.

Djokovic has won 57 of the past 60 matches he has played at Melbourne Park and is the record holder with eight Australian Open titles.

A winner of his ATP Cup singles rubbers against Denis Shapovalov and Alexander Zverev, the 33-year-old plays Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the opening round on Monday night.

The 17-time major champion feels confident he can reduce the gap in grand slam titles to two behind Nadal and Federer.

“I’ve never experienced that kind of lead-up to (the) Australian Open before,” he said.

“So that’s a positive, obviously, of having already quite a lot of match time on the court where I’ll start my Australian Open 2021 tomorrow night.”

Djokovic described his feelings towards Melbourne Park as akin to “a love affair”.

Nadal and Djokovic will have to deal with challenges from several rising young stars.

Italian Jannick Sinner claimed a second title in succession when he won the final of the Great Ocean Road Open and is a rare talent tipped for big things in the future.

He faces Shapovalov, another brilliant talent, on Monday night. Australia’s leading hopeful Alex de Minaur will start his campaign against Tennys Sandgren on Tuesday on John Cain Arena.

The man with the most on the line this week is Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley.

After months of testing negotiations, the biggest gamble in Australian sport starts on Monday.

Tiley suspected he would struggle to sleep on the eve of the tournament given his anxiety levels.

“It has not been easy but the confidence levels are rising,” he said.

“I think, more than anything, I want this event to be successful so the team can look back and celebrate what has been done.”