In the exclusive interview he gave to Paris Match, Rafael Nadal talks about his family, his essential cocoon, and Xisca, the woman who has shared his life since his adolescence and whom he married two years ago.
Until the age of twelve, Nadal hesitated between two balls, those that are propelled into the goals and those that are hit with a racket. We know the choice that led to this dilemma: “It’s life that led me there, because I couldn’t manage to play football, train for tennis and follow class lessons at the same time. time. The Spanish tennis federation offered me to move to Barcelona. But my uncle – who was my coach – knew that in Mallorca I was playing with a good group, surrounded by good players, and that everything was going well.
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But, there is a subject on which the champion has never hesitated: his family, essential for his balance: “One of the keys to success was to stay at home. I never had any doubts about that. Don’t forget that I was a kid, my career would have been very different if I hadn’t had my family. She helped me grow in this environment.”
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And nearly 25 years later, that relationship is still going strong. And he is amused: “I am no longer a child! [Il rit.] But it’s as if we all live in the same village. Everyone talks to each other and everyone knows each other. I am very close to my father, my mother: it is obvious when you see us together.
But living so close to his family does not prevent him from wanting to build his own. But at his own pace, with Xisca, the woman who has shared his life since he was 17 but whom he only married in 2020: “We got married to have a big party. Basically, it hasn’t changed much in our life, since we’ve been together for seventeen years. But there had come a time in our lives when it felt like the right timing to do it…”
Again, stability is his credo. The secret to his mind-blowing career? He does not deny: “It helps. In sport, especially tennis, you have to stay focused every day of your life. If you are not emotionally stable, it becomes much more complicated.
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