Rafael Nadal to face Milos Raonic in first match since early January at Indian Wells

Less than 90 minutes after the men's draw was made at the BNP Paribas Open, and the ATP had already updated the featured players on its head-to-head landing page: Rafael Nadal and Milos Raonic.

It's surely the first time a world No. 652 and world No. 224 were given top billing at the URL—or even appeared there at all.

They'll be given another spotlight Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wellls, as the two will collide in the Spaniard's first match since one of the very first tournaments of the season, in Brisbane.

Nadal has a 7-2 record against Raonic, though the aforementioned page says 8-2, with their round-robin encounter at the 2019 Laver Cup. Prior to that, the Spaniard and Canadian last tangled in 2017, in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

Raonic's victories came in the 2017 Brisbane quarterfinals and, notably, at Indian Wells, in the 2015 quarters. Nadal has won every other match—all on hard courts except one, on clay—dating back to the 2010 Tokyo round of 16. They have never met before that stage at any tournament.

Should Nadal get past Raonic, a meeting with Holger Rune awaits. It doesn't get much easier from there: