 Welcome back to tennis talk. My name's Cam Williams and Rafa Nadal has confirmed that he will be playing in Cincinnati next week His first hard-court matches since Indian Wells at the start of the year back in March because he pulled out of Miami the week After due to those rib injuries. Let's go check over on Instagram the announcement of Rafa playing sincey This is what Rafa said over on Instagram with a photo of him having a lovely time out in Spain saying very happy to play again In sincey flying there tomorrow so with Rafa in the field We have a strong list of players playing this event here at the top eight seeds for the event starting with the number eight seed Who be her catch he will be playing Felix Ozie earlier seen will come in as the seventh seed Andre Rubelev He's the number six seed Kasparud would be the fifth seed since he passes seeded fourth in sincey next week Elkress will come in at the number three seed Rafa's gonna be at the number two seed and of course the world number one dental Medvedev will be playing as the number one Seed it's very of his withdrawn so he won't be featured and also Novak Djokovic at this stage won't be able to get into Cincinnati or Into America, so he is not going to be featured at the event. So there you have it It's a very strong lineup for Cincinnati and of course Rafa playing. That's a big big deal We haven't seen him for a long time on the hard courts And also how's it gonna look because he's been a little injured a lot this year Of course pulled out of Wimbledon due to injury He's taken a few weeks off He pulled out of last week's Canadian Open as well and he did win this tournament back in 2013 So he does have happy memories here of lifting this trophy, but let me know down the comments below How far can Rafa go at this event? We've seen a lot of those top guys Medvedev Elkress since he passed all dropping out of the Canadian Open this week in massive Upsets so Rafa's gonna like his chances next week in sincey But again, let me know down the comments below. How well do you think Rafa's gonna go in his first hard court matches back?