Having taken time out to deal with a wrist injury, the Spaniard roared back to reach the Australian Open final before winning his 10th French Open title and a third US Open.

At 31, he became the oldest man ever to lift the year-end world No 1 trophy despite being forced out of the ATP World Tour Finals with a knee injury.

But which tournaments will he play in 2018 in an effort to hang onto top spot?

December 2017

Assuming the knee injury that saw him pull out of after one match at the ATP World Tour Finals is not more serious, Nadal’s season will start in Abu Dhabi.

An exhibition tournament featuring six of the world’s top players, the Mubadala World Tennis Championship could see him face Novak Djokovic in the final but his opening match will fall on December 29 against either Pablo Carreno Busta or Stan Wawrinka.

January 2018

Nadal’s traditional ATP curtain-raiser has become the Brisbane International (January 1-7), which he will likely use as a warm-up for the Australian Open (January 15-28) once again.

Last year saw him knocked out in the quarter-finals by Milos Raonic, whom he beat two weeks later in Melbourne at the same stage of the Australian Open.

February 2018

Previous years, such as 2015 when Nadal played his highest number of tournaments (23), have seen the Spaniard fill the gap between the Austrian Open and the spring US swing with tournaments in South America, on the clay courts of Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires.

However, having to switch from hard to clay, back again and then returning to the dirt, all in the space of just eight weeks, could be too much for his body.

Instead, he might opt to spend the end of February in Mexico, where there are 500 ranking points up for grabs in Acapulco (February 26-March 3). 

March

Having been knocked out in the last 16 of Indian Wells in 2017 by Roger Federer, Nadal could make a big improvement on his ranking points tally at the ATP Masters 1000 event this year (March 6-March 18).

He is likely to make the trip down to Miami (March 22-April 2) afterwards, where he lost to Federer in the final last year.

April

This is where Nadal’s year should really come to life: the clay-court season.

It’s a well-trodden path for him, usually an unbeaten one, through four tournaments before the French Open. 

He will open, we can be fairly certain, in with the Monte-Carlo Masters (April 14-22) followed by a trip to Barcelona (April 21-29) to defend the title he has won 10 times before.

May

April very much runs into May for Nadal in most years, with the Madrid Open (May 4-May 13) and the 1000 points on offer there his for the taking.

Another short European flight will follow with a trip to Rome for his third clay Masters event of the season: the Italian Open (May 14-May 20). 2018 will see him attempt to avenge a gruelling defeat to Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals.

All being well, that should prepare him perfectly for the tournament that might as well be renamed the Nadal Open. The world No 1 has 10 French Open (May 27-June 10) titles and there is little reason to believe he won’t add an 11th this year.

June

If, at this point in the year, Nadal’s knee is troubling him again, he still won’t want to miss the grass-court season.

He might make the concession of not playing at the Stuttgart Open (June 11-17) but will want to make up for pulling out of Queen’s (June 18-June 24) in west London in 2017.

July

Nadal will naturally prioritise Wimbledon (July 2-July 15) above the other grass tournaments.

He would dearly love to add a third SW19 title to his trophy cabinet but Centre Court is very much the domain of Roger Federer.

August

Nadal’s injury problems in 2016 first reared their head when he pulled out of the Rogers Cup in Toronto with a wrist problem.

He did manage to play this time around, in Montreal, and when the tournament alternates back to Toronto in 2018 (August 6-August 12), he would like to be there.

There are 1000 points on offer a week later in Cincinnati too (August 13-August 19).

Crucially, he will want to remain injury free in a draining part of the schedule before defending his US Open title (August 27-September 9).

September

With all four majors out of the way, Nadal will likely take a flexible approach to his schedule based on his condition and his chances of retaining the No 1 slot.

September has seen him take three weeks off several times in recent years before returning in the Far East.

October

Perhaps refreshed by a rare break from competitive tennis, Nadal is likely to head to Beijing for the China Open (October 1-7) before playing the Shanghai Masters (October 8-14) where he will defend 600 points for reaching last year’s final.

When injury has not seen him forced to manage his season, Nadal has been a regular figure at the Swiss Indoors (October 22-28) in Basel, Federer’s home tournament, but he has never managed top honours there, losing to the Swiss in the final of the 2015 edition.

That is followed by the Paris Masters (October 29-November 4) where the world rankings will be the main focus and whether Nadal can retain top spot.

November

The season end will be within touching distance and Nadal will hope to have qualified and remained fit enough to play in the ATP World Tour Finals (November 11-18), in the season’s biggest indoor stadium: the 02 Arena.

December

“WOW! We’re going to Ibiza.”

Actually, it’s more likely that Nadal will dodge the Vengaboys and head to Mallorca in his month off for some down time with uncle Toni at the academy before starting his training for another gruelling season in 2019.

That is of course, assuming 2018 is not his last.