Rafael Nadal will say goodbye to professional tennis during the celebration of the Davis Cup Finals from November 19 to 24 in Malaga, which will be the ideal setting to say goodbye at home, surrounded by his people, to end a legendary professional career.
The champion of 22 Grand Slams shared in a recent interview his feelings facing the end of his golden career after a huge battle against injuries and after a year in which he was unable to achieve his set goals. “I’m not feeling it, I’ve assumed that this is over. I know it. In the end, the decision has been more than made. I said last year that this would probably be my last year, and that’s how it’s going to be. It’s just that I’ve announced it a little later. People expected me to announce it before Roland Garros. I have given myself the necessary time, in a decision that is a change in my life from what I have been doing for the last 30 years, because my tennis life is not. It starts when I become a professional, it starts long before. To take a new direction in your life, you have to be sure, not make a decision based on what they may tell you or what you may hear. It’s something that you have to deal with. to be sure”, Nadal said to the media during the “Six Kings Slams” celebration.
The 14-time Roland Garros champion meditated for a long time after Paris 2024 and finally made the decision, detailing the reasons that led him to determine that this was his last year as a professional tennis player. “When I was convinced of it, I conveyed it. The Davis Cup is going to be something exciting, without a doubt, it will be my last event, also representing my country. Then, to be clear, I am going to be on the team because My captain has considered it that way. I am going to try to prepare in the best way possible, but obviously, I will not be playing my game if the captain did not see me as having more possibilities than my teammate. Just because I am going to retire, I do not have to play. an individual match. I will do it this way if I am better prepared than my teammates. I have the responsibility to represent Spain. This is not my retirement, it is the Davis Cup, which is far ahead of my farewell. take on something that doesn’t concern me”, sentenced the native of Manacor.
Rafael Nadal: I am not burned out or tired of my sport
From a very young age he began his relationship with tennis, a love that has only grown with the passage of time, which led the “beast” to continue fighting for many years, winning 92 professional titles and fighting against all the odds that foreshadowed a short career “I have extended my decision a little longer. They had to give me a farewell in Rome and Paris, but the others I decided not to do because I had no need to force myself to do anything. I wanted to give myself the time that I considered necessary to see How my body evolved after a difficult operation like the one I had on my hip. It is a very simple issue, I am not burned out or tired of my sport. My body does not respond as I need to for it to compensate me to continue doing what I do. But I am happy, I enjoy playing tennis. I am not able to do it consistently at the level and standards that compensate me and motivate me. To reach that conclusion I had to let some time pass and I think it was something that I needed to do. I needed it. I am not going to retire from something that I have been doing all my life and that I like to do with the doubt of waiting a little longer,” today I am convinced of it. finished Rafael Nadal.
