Rafael Nadal's uncle and former coach, Toni Nadal, has said his nephew would have liked to continue competing, but he eventually realized that was impossible.
Nadal announced his retirement last month. The end of the Spaniard's illustrious career will occur at the Davis Cup Finals. Team Spain is set to face the Netherlands in the quarterfinal on November 19th.
That decision took an extended period to reach. Nadal struggled with injury problems for over two years, the most severe of which was a hip issue he sustained at the 2023 Australian Open that sidelined him for 12 months.
The 14-time French Open champion attempted to return in 2024, but he was physically hampered again. Nadal did manage to compete at Roland-Garros two more times, losing to Alexander Zverev and his great rival Novak Djokovic at the French Open and the Olympics, respectively.
After losing to Djokovic, Nadal was asked multiple times if he planned on retiring from the sport. The 38-year-old did not like those questions, saying he would tell him when any decision was made.
Two months later, Nadal announced his career would end at the Davis Cup Finals. He will likely renew the high-profile doubles partnership from the Olympics with Carlos Alcaraz, but it is unknown if the 22-time Grand Slam winner intends to play singles.
Nadal's uncle Toni previously revealed that Rafael would get more involved with his academy and also mentioned the possibility of him becoming Real Madrid's director of football.
During an interview with Flashscore, Toni spoke about Nadal's decision to retire. The 63-year-old admitted it was hard for Nadal to walk away from something he loves, but he eventually realized overcoming his physical issues would not be possible.
"People always tend to blame others for things they don't do themselves. Rafael found it hard to retire because, for anyone, to stop doing an activity you like and have been doing for many years is hard."
"Afterwards, my nephew has lived another reality: for years, he has lived with problems, with injuries that he has been able to overcome. This time, it wasn't like that. It didn't happen, and when he realised it was impossible, he retired. But before that, he would have wanted to continue, of course."
It is easy for fans to say athletes should retire at or near their peaks, but that argument does not consider several factors. Firstly, the passion sportspeople have that Toni mentioned in his comments.
Also, players like Nadal have shown incredible resilience to overcome injuries and challenge for the most significant tournaments again afterward. That would have made him believe he could do that once again.
Nadal eventually discovered that recovering from his problems in the last two years was impossible, but he cannot be blamed for trying after successfully recovering from injuries in the past.
Toni knows as well as anyone how complex Nadal's decision-making process must have been. Hopefully, the tennis legend will get the send-off he deserves at the Davis Cup Finals.
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