22 time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal gave an interview with Movistar sponsor to update the public about his status, one year after he retired during Davis Cup final 2024. Nadal and is family recently returned to Majorca from a vacation to Japan.
His relationship with tennis at the moment. “I played 45 minutes with (Alexandra) Eala, they asked me to play and I was happy to do it. If I don’t have to run, that’s fine. Through the academy I’m still involved and I watch whatever I feel like. I don’t follow the day-to-day like before.”
Dealing with the absence of the emotional adrenaline of tennis. “I gained peace, in the sense that, in a way, you don’t feel that daily responsibility to perform. Sometimes performing under unsuitable conditions wears you down as a person, and you end up not being as happy as someone like me should be. The bad thing is, in the end, a stage that was exceptionally beautiful and exciting for me has ended. Something I was truly passionate about has gone: competing at the highest level. That adrenaline, it stays forever. I think you replace it with many other things in life that can be better in many ways, but what you find in sport is hard to find elsewhere.”
On retirement. “Tennis has been what I’ve dedicated myself to fully. I was prepared because I explored all real options I had to continue competing at the level I would have liked gave me the conviction and peace to finish in peace … the tank was already empty.”
On “The Big 3″… “We came after Sampras, who had 14 Slams. We, being three, not two, never had room for relaxation. The demand was maximum. We never stopped pushing each other. There was no margin to skip tournaments. That’s the greatness of our era. We were always in the final rounds competing for the most important tournaments. I don’t think one alone could have done it. I don’t think it changed much. The world evolves and playing style changes a bit. You hit harder, serve harder. I still believe in intuition, not playing like a robot trying to guess from stats. I discussed this with Federer, and he didn’t like having too much information.”
ATP · Novak Djokovic · Rafael Nadal · Roger Federer
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