Rafael Nadal faces off against former F1 champion Nico Rosberg in 'ping pong' game

Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal may have missed the majority of the 2021 season due to an injury, but he is certainly not out of touch with his hand-eye coordination, as he demonstrated in a recent video shared by former Formula 1 driver Nico Rosberg.

On his own yacht in Monaco, Nadal played a "ping-pong" match against Rosberg, which the racer jokingly described as the "World Ambassador Cup". In a video uploaded by Rosberg, the 20-time Grand Slam champion can be seen battling it out in a five-point table tennis encounter with the German-Finnish driver.

The video shows Rosberg grabbing an early lead. The Spaniard, on the other hand, staged a comeback and equalized the score at 1-1 as Rosberg failed to pick a shot from the Spanish legend. Rosberg reclaimed his lead as Nadal once again hit a shot out of the legal area. Nadal then scored two back-to-back points to win the game 3-2. 

Nadal's career

As far as Nadal is concerned, the 35-year-old has not played a professional tennis game since pulling out of Wimbledon earlier this year. Nadal then missed the Tokyo Olympics owing to a foot injury. Nadal didn't participate in the recently concluded US Open either.

Nadal is expected to make a full recovery before next year's Australian Open and will likely make a comeback down under. Nadal has not won an Australian Open title since 2009 and he will definitely look to change that once he takes the court in 2022. 

Meanwhile, Rosberg took retirement from motor racing in 2016, five days after he clinched his maiden world championship title. Rosberg had expressed his wish to spend more time with his family while announcing his retirement after the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix win. Rosberg became the first driver in more than 23 years to announce his retirement as the reigning champion. 

Image: AP/NicoRosberg/Twitter