Lopez is set to travel with Nadal to Abu Dhabi next week where Nadal is set to appear at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. Nadal has been absent from the sport for over four months while he recovered from a foot injury.
The last time that Nadal added a coach to his team was in 2017. That turned out to be a great year for the Spaniard since he ended the year as World No.1 and he went home with his 10th French Open title and 3rd US Open title.
Nadal and Lopez have also played together, most notably in the 2016 Rio Olympics where they won the gold for the doubles event. They have also won a number of career doubles titles together.
Lopez joins Nadals other coaches, Francis Roig and Carlos Moya. They have been working during Nadals pre-season practices in Mallorca.
Prior to Nadal, Lopez has also coached Feliciano Lopez.
The upcoming Mubadala event is highly anticipated for Nadal as it will show how Nadal is actually doing following his foot injury.