The 48-year-old golf ‘poster boy’ from California made his long-awaited return to competitive action on Thursday at the 88th edition of the 2024 Masters Tournament. This is Tiger Woods‘ 24th consecutive appearance at the Augusta National where he never missed the cut yet. He played 13 holes before the play was suspended and shot 1-under 51 on his return. Seeing the golf legend back in action, fans started pouring in their messages on social media including tennis superstars.

Serena Williams‘ husband, Alexis Ohanian, took to Instagram to share a post of ‘Golf Digest’ on his Instagram stories. In that post, they put up a picture where a man was seen distracted by Tiger Woods’ presence at this year’s Masters. He simply looked as if he could keep all his works aside to see this legend in action. They wrote, “Masters week mood” in the captions. Even American tennis star, Sebastian Korda shared his laptop screen showing Woods in action on his Instagram stories. He wrote, “Let’s go” and put a ‘tiger’ emoji beside it.

German tennis legend also jumped in to showcase his excitement about Tiger Woods’ return. He tweeted, “Watching @TheMasters and just love @TigerWoods…amazing storyline! Wish him always the best!” It has been almost 5 years since Tiger Woods shocked the world by winning the Masters. Can he repeat the same heroics on his return?

On Tuesday Tiger Woods gave an interview, and in that interview, he said, “If everything comes together, I think I can get one more. Do I need to describe that any more than that, or are we good? I still think that I can [win].” He further went on to add, “I haven’t got to that point where I don’t think I can’t.” However, his connection with tennis isn’t new, and here are a few instances when he came hand in hand with the racket sport in the past.

The time when Tiger Woods dumped Rafael Nadal for Roger Feder

Rafael Nadal is a big fan of Tiger Woods. The Spanish tennis star had even spoken about the hard work that Woods put in to return to the top of the table by winning the Masters in 2019. Nadal stated, “He’s probably my favorite sportsman in the world since a long time ago. I am a big fan of his.” 

He further went on to add, “If you imagine all the processes and hard work he had to do to be back on a golf course. It’s so difficult – all the things that he did. And finally win a grand slam again, in Augusta, probably his favorite one, means everything.” But who’s the inspiration for Tiger Woods from the tennis world?

In 2022, Tiger Woods named Roger Federer as one of his biggest inspirations from the sporting world. He lauded his ability to quickly recover from serious injuries and stated, “What Rog has done is he’s been dominant for so long. And then to, not only that, to compete against Djokovic, to compete against Rafa, and now Andy is playing well… He’s had, you know, a litany of guys who have won slams.“

Woods added, “No one wins slams at his age. And for him to come back, after having to take that much time off, and for him to get the timing; that’s the hardest part.” Share your thoughts on the comeback of Tiger Woods.

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