Rafael Nadal opens up about his life post-retirement, details practice with Alexandra Eala
NewsTuesday, 25 November 2025 at 13:31
Rafael Nadal returned to the tennis court a week ago and has now opened up about the experience and his life after retiring from tennis.
It's been more than a year since Nadal played his last competitive tennis match. It happened at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, where he lost to Botic van de Zandschulp, as the Netherlands shockingly eliminated Spain.
Now, one year later, Nadal returned to the tennis court in a practice session with rising WTA star, Alexandra Eala. The 20-year-old Filipina is one of the players who went through Nadal's academy, which is one of the reasons why she had the privilege of practicing with the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
Only days after his practice session with Eala, Nadal sat down with Movistar+ to talk about his life after retirement. He mentioned the practice session, joking that as long as he didn't have to run, it wasn't a problem for him.
"I played 45 minutes with Eala; they asked me to play, and I was happy to do it. If I don’t have to run, that’s fine. Through the academy, I’m still involved, and I watch whatever I feel like. I don’t follow the day-to-day like before."
Nadal was used to competing at the highest level for most of his life. It was always about practicing, preparing, and then performing. Now, his life has changed quite a lot. He doesn't have to compete anymore.
But the change hasn't necessarily been negative, quite the opposite. Being able to get rid of that constant stress and pressure has actually helped the 39-year-old, who can now enjoy his everyday life.
"I gained peace, in the sense that, in a way, you don’t feel that daily responsibility to perform. Sometimes performing under unsuitable conditions wears you down as a person, and you end up not being as happy as someone like me should be. The bad thing is, in the end, a stage that was exceptionally beautiful and exciting for me has ended."
"Something I was truly passionate about has gone: competing at the highest level. That adrenaline, it stays forever. I think you replace it with many other things in life that can be better in many ways, but what you find in sport is hard to find elsewhere."
Rafael Nadal describes 'the greatness' of the Big Three era
The Big Three era is coming to an end. Roger Federer was recently elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Nadal retired last year, and even though Novak Djokovic keeps playing, his last Grand Slam title came at the 2023 US Open.
Nadal has looked back on the Big Three era in an interview with Movistar+, explaining how incredibly challenging it was to constantly push the boundaries of what seemed possible.
"We came after Sampras, who had 14 Slams. We, being three, not two, never had room for relaxation. The demand was maximum. We never stopped pushing each other. There was no margin to skip tournaments. That’s the greatness of our era."
"We were always in the final rounds competing for the most important tournaments. I don’t think one alone could have done it. I don’t think it changed much. The world evolves, and playing style changes a bit. You hit harder, serve harder. I still believe in intuition, not playing like a robot trying to guess from stats. I discussed this with Federer, and he didn’t like having too much information."
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