When a player returns to action from an extended absence off the court, they generally tend to need some time to find their game before they start playing at the level of tennis we are accustomed to seeing. However when it comes to Rafa Nadal all bets are off.

After spending a grand total of 222 consecutive days on the sidelines during what was the latter stages of the 2012 ATP season and the start of the 2013 campaign, Nadal made his return at the Chile Open in Vina del Mar and managed to make his way into the final before dropping a hard fought three setter to Argentine Horacio Zeballos. Not too shabby of a return for a guy who had been away from the game for as long as he had.

Outside of his first round misstep at the All England Club against German Steve Darcis, Rafa reached the final in thirteen of his first fourteen events, taking home the title in ten of the thirteen, and made the semi-final and final in his last three appearances of the year for good measure. In total, Nadal put together a record of 75-7 on the year and reclaimed his ranking as the No. 1 player in the world.   

With that being the case, many are wondering what the Spaniard might accomplish upon returning from his latest setback to close out the current season. While he may be somewhat familiar with the scenario he is now facing, there are a handful of differences compared to the last time he had to go through a similar situation.

Back in 2013 Rafa made his return back in early February during the early stages of the ATP season, whereas this time around he will be making it at the tail end of the year. Nadal will certainly have the advantage of facing opponents who are unquestionably physically worn down at this stage of the game, especially considering he will be relatively fresh and coming off what has been an extended period of practice time to work on his overall game while he waited for his injured wrist to heal.

That said, one can practice all they would like but at the end of the day nothing replaces match play. The last time we saw the world No. 2 in action was way back on July 1st, when he was knocked out of Wimbledon in the Round of Sixteen buy Australian youngster Nick Kyrgios. That was nearly three full months ago and expecting him to come back without missing a step would seem to be a little unrealistic.

Of course there is one other big difference and that was the fourteen-time Grand Slam winner had the good fortune of playing eight of his first nine tournaments on his beloved clay...which was certainly a game-changer. He will not be so fortunate this time around, as all the remaining ATP Tour events will be played on some sort of hard court…be it on an outdoor or indoor surface.

The reality of the situation is Nadal will probably struggle in his return but should he manage to find a way to get past Richard Gasquet during what is one heck tough opening round match at the 2014 China Open, he could very well find himself in not only a semi-final against one of Tomas Berdych or John Isner but quite possibly a spot in the final against five-time winner and defending champion Novak Djokovic.

Outside of his round first round date with the talented Frenchman, a potential quarter-final match against either Ernests Gulbis or Fabio Fognini is all that would really be standing in his way from reaching that goal. While either one of those players could realistically knock Nadal out of the tourney, no one truly knows what to expect from the two guys who are arguably the most inconsistent players currently ranked inside the top twenty.   

Even if he were to find his way into next weekend’s finale in Beijing, expectations have to be kept in check for the remainder of the season. Would any of us really be surprised to see the former No. 1 player in the world come out and do his thing over these last few events? Of course it wouldn’t.

Nadal has left so many of us shaking our heads in disbelief over some of things he has been able to accomplish over the years, that seeing him pull another rabbit out of his hat would almost be par for the course. Having said all of that, patience will likely be the word of the day when it comes to Rafael Nadal and the remainder of the 2014 ATP season.