Rafael Nadal has revealed that he never questioned his desire and motivation to return to full-time competition during his time away from the sport in the past year.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion was quizzed on whether he mirrored Naomi Osaka's sentiments about the possibility of falling out of love with tennis while he was on an injury hiatus.
Nadal, 37, damaged the psoas muscle in his hip at last year's Australian Open and had to sit out for the entire campaign. Osaka, meanwhile, had spent the past 12 months on maternity leave and has previously disclosed about her struggles with mental health.
The Japanese star was candid about her indefinite break when she spoke to reporters before her first WTA match in 15 months. She considered quitting the sport after seeing all the joy evaporate before having second thoughts.
Nadal resonates with what Osaka went through, and there are parallels. However, he stated that their situations were completely different. The Spaniard pointed out that although it was natural for him to have doubts about his comeback, he never lost his love for the game.
"Well, I think Naomi and I completely different situation. I think Naomi, if I'm not wrong, she said that she lost a little bit the love for the game for a while and the passion for the game. Something that never happened to me."
"So the biggest difference. She gets tired or lost little bit the motivation for this game or for this thing. That never happened to me. I had to be away because my body was not able to keep going."
Nadal was merely explaining that his absence was heavily affected by his injury, which required surgery and a lengthy recovery process. At 37, it was questionable if he would ever return to his best form, but his determination enabled him to persevere and prolong his playing career.
"If I thought about retirement during that period of time? Of course, yes. I had to went through a lot of things to be back. Sometimes, of course, in the low moments, it's 100% human that you put yourself in a position to say, Okay, it makes sense all the things I have to do to be back at 37 years old."
"Knowing probably you will be back and you will not be healthy enough to compete the way that you wanted to compete. Something of that, of course, I was asking to myself. At some point I decided to keep going, no? I had the determination to keep going."
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