Nadal on retirement: I`m not worried about the new chapter of life - I always felt happy without tennis
23.12.2024
Rafael Nadal spoke about how he feels about retiring. He will play his last match at the Davis Cup. It will begin on November 19 with matches between Spain and the Netherlands.
– What makes you most happy and sad about leaving tennis?
– Everyone makes mistakes. Of course, I would change something - like everyone else who ends a long career. I would try to be better and avoid something. But I achieved the main thing, because I know that I gave everything I had. I`ve been playing and training since I was seven or eight years old - I started at three, but from that age I started to work harder and push myself to become the best I could be.
I`m not one of those people who says: No, I wouldn`t change anything. To me it looks arrogant. Of course, I would change something. But it was very important to me that I left the tour with peace of mind and personal satisfaction that I gave my best almost always.
I`m not worried about the new chapter of life. I always felt happy without tennis - there were many times when I couldn`t play due to injuries, so I spent months doing other things. True, I did this during recovery, so now the approach will be different.
I don’t know how everything will be after, but I understand that after important changes occur in life, we must accept this process. There will always be a little in the beginning. . . I’m not sure what’s difficult, but it’s definitely different.
– What will you miss most?
– Probably by the feelings you experience at tournaments, when you go out onto the court and see the fans, by the atmosphere at important matches. The adrenaline you feel before the match, during and at the end.
I may have things that will make me happier or give me different and more meaningful feelings, but adrenaline is hard to find outside of professional sports.
– Have you decided to retire due to a new injury or have you simply decided that your body cannot continue to play on clay again?
– No, not a new injury. The thing is, surgery last year and some other things I won`t talk about make me feel like I`m not competitive enough. And I can`t enjoy my life the way I need to in order to compete at the highest level.
So it all comes down to asking yourself: Okay, I can hold out for another year, but why? I don`t have the ego to say goodbye to every tournament.
It`s about a feeling that I`ve been thinking about for a long time. I don`t see the point in continuing knowing that I have no real opportunity to compete the way I like because my body is not able to give me the opportunity to do it very often.
Read all sport news
