The showdown is part of the Rafa Nadal Academy Slam, a Ryder‑Cup‑style competition staged to mark the 10th anniversary of Nadal’s training centre in Manacor, Mallorca.
In a video posted to social media, Nadal personally invited Murray back to the academy, saying, “I know you’ve been practising a lot, almost like a professional…maybe you can bring some of your friends and I can bring some of mine, and we can have a team competition here at the Academy to celebrate the 10th Anniversary.”
Murray will lead Team Murray, while Nadal will captain Team Rafa; the remaining team members have yet to be announced.
The Oct. 3 event will be Murray’s third visit to the academy – he first trained there in 2016 and returned in 2019 to compete at the Rafa Nadal Open.
Their upcoming encounter comes more than ten years after their last meeting, a semi‑final clash at the 2016 Mutua Madrid Open, underscoring the rarity of the pairing on court.
The match is expected to draw attention to the academy’s decade of development work and to showcase two of the sport’s most celebrated players from the same generation.