Corretja shares his opinion on Nadal’s future
Nadal’s withdrawal came just months after his colleague and one of his biggest rivals, Andy Murray, also retired. Recently, Murray surprised everyone by being hired as Novak Djokovic’s coach for 2025, creating a quick turn of events for the two-time Olympic singles gold medalist.
In a recent interview with Eurosport, Corretja spoke about the possibility of Nadal making a similar decision and becoming a coach for a Tour player. “In my opinion, it is impossible. 99.9% impossible, because you cannot say totally impossible in life. But I would be very surprised,” Corretja said.
“I think he’s going to need time to realize what he really wants to do. I have the impression that, even though he has children and is busy at home, Andy has less to do on a day-to-day basis,” added the former number 2 of the world. “Rafa lives in Manacor and has his academy. So I don’t see him moving around much. Maybe Andy still wanted to travel, to have this experience.”
Rafa Nadal after winning his last trophy at the 2022 French Open.
“I don’t see Rafa as a coach or advisor to anyone. I would see him more as an advisor to something big like Real Madrid, contributing something to the club by giving some talks,” said the 14-time ATP Tour champion. “I would see it for a short period of time, three months or six months. But on a day-to-day basis, I don’t really see it.”
Furthermore, the former Spanish tennis player mentioned that Nadal’s farewell left a bittersweet feeling, after criticism arose over the absence of high-level figures such as Djokovic or Roger Federer. “We all felt that it wasn’t an epic moment. There weren’t very emotional feelings. It was very difficult because Spain had just lost a few minutes before, and everything seemed very cold. It was because it wasn’t just an exhibition. It was a very important tournament for all”.
“Once Spain lost, it was like now we had to recognize Rafa, but no one was prepared for that. Also, then the images they showed and the people who appeared in the videos or whatever, even though they were stars , they were great. But at some point we felt like we were expecting something else on the court, some of his former teammates or whatever.”
“They were not prepared for that, because they thought that maybe they would do it all on Friday, but they forgot that tennis, as you know, can be lost against anyone. And that is what Holland did against Spain,” Corretja added. “It was good because they tried their best, and Rafael was quite emotional with the public and with everyone and everything, but not as emotional as we felt. Rafael is always epic, and we didn’t feel as epic in his farewell.”
