"Where's Rafa? Too busy on his yacht to play for his country?"- Tennis fans react to Rafael Nadal not being included in Spain's team for Davis Cup

Rafael Nadal will miss out on the Davis Cup finals group stage after not being selected for the Spanish team on Monday. The Spaniard will not make an appearance since winning the tournament in 2019 whilst representing Spain.

The squads for the team tournament's group stage, which is scheduled to take place from September 13 to September 18, have been revealed with rising talent Carlos Alcaraz, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Roberto Bautista Agut, Pablo Carreno Busta, and Sergi Bruguera representing the Spanish team.

The team, led by Bruguera, will compete against Serbia, Canada, and South Korea in Group B.

In view of this, tennis fans expressed their opinions about the Spanish team on Twitter, the majority of whom were displeased by Nadal's absence.

"Where's Rafa? Too busy on his yacht to play for his country?" a user tweeted.

Another user remarked that while leaving out Nadal was a poor decision for Spain, the squad still looked strong without him.

"Hate when Spain leave Raf out and still manage to have a better team than everyone else," another fan said.

Another user commented that it was disappointing that the 22-time Grand-Slam champion was absent from the team, but understood that he had to take care of his body.

"No Rafa understandably. Sad but Rafa needs to do what’s best for his body," the user wrote.

Here are a few more reactions:

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"If it happens, I will be very happy"- Rafael Nadal on his chances of regaining No. 1 ranking

Western & Southern Open - Day 2

Rafael Nadal is all set to begin his campaign at the 2022 Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. It will be his first competition since being forced to retire from his Wimbledon semifinal match against Nick Kyrgios due to a seven millimeter abdominal tear that he sustained in his quarterfinal match against Taylor Fritz.

The 36-year-old could regain the top spot in the ATP rankings and replace current World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev. If the Spaniard wins the Western & Southern Open and the Russian exits the competition before the quarterfinals, Rafael Nadal will once again become the World No. 1 in the ATP rankings.

The Spaniard expressed his views on the matter during a press conference in Cincinnati and declared that he didn't expect to be in the position to be No. 1 in the rankings.

"I am going to put all my efforts into every single event I play," Nadal said. "It is something that doesn’t matter if I have the chance to be No. 1, but I am happy to be in this position and if it happens, I will be very happy."

"It means a lot to me to have that opportunity [to rise to No. 1]. Something that I didn’t expect could happen again. The main thing is to stay healthy and play the events that I want to play. I will not play more than what I believe works well for my body," he added.