Rafael Nadal has opened up on the moment he knew his tennis career was “over”. The Spaniard spent the better part of two years sidelined by injuries before hanging up his racket at the Davis Cup Finals in November. But Nadal now says he decided to retire months before playing his final tournament.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion spent months trying to come back from a major hip operation and even admitted he “didn’t want” any retirement ceremonies. But he has now explained that one tournament changed everything.
Nadal ended his glittering career on home soil last November, representing his country one final time in the Davis Cup.
When the former world No. 1 returned from a year-long injury layoff in early 2024, he struggled and immediately faced another setback. Still, he remained optimistic and refused to fan the flames of retirement.
But Nadal finally announced his retirement plans in October, a few weeks before his final appearance in Spain’s tie against the Netherlands.
The 38-year-old has given his most in-depth interview since retiring, appearing on his old rival Andy Roddick’s podcast, where he explained that one moment made him realise that his career was “over”.
Nadal had returned from plenty of career-threatening injuries and surgeries, so he was confident things would fall into place after having an arthroscopic hip procedure. “I gave myself time to see if I am able to recover myself the proper way,” he explained.
“Because in terms of tennis, I still feel competitive in myself. I didn’t feel that I lost speed on the ball. Just needed to recover the physical confidence and take out the limitation.
“That’s why doing all these months had been difficult, because, in some way, I felt, ‘Okay, let’s keep fighting because at some point, maybe that’s going to work well’.”
However, the weeks passed and Nadal still felt he couldn’t show the level he wanted to on the match court. He continued: “So, [there] arrived a moment after Olympics, I come back home and say, ‘Okay, it’s over, I feel it’.
“Before I didn’t feel it, I wanted to give myself the time. After that, I say, ‘Okay, it doesn’t make sense anymore’. I don’t feel myself that I go with this issue.
“I don’t feel that I’m going to come back being competitive at the level that motivates me. So then when I felt that, for me, it’s over.”
Nadal reached the second round of the singles tournament at the Paris Olympics, losing to Novak Djokovic in their 60th and final official meeting. He also reached the doubles quarter-finals with Carlos Alcaraz. It was just his seventh tournament of 2024.
The 22-time Major winner didn’t play again for months. In October, he finally announced his retirement plans. Nadal played the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia, losing to Alcaraz and Djokovic, before bowing out at the Davis Cup.