Rafael Nadal stepped back onto a tennis court last week for the first time since retiring. Now he’s sharing what it was really like – and how his life has completely changed since hanging up his racket.
It’s been over a year since Nadal played his final competitive match. That happened at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, where he lost to Botic van de Zandschulp in what turned out to be a shocking upset as the Netherlands knocked Spain out of the tournament.
Alexandra Eala, a 20-year-old rising star from the Philippines, got the incredible opportunity to hit with the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rafael Nadal | 38 | 215 | 7 - 5 |
She’s one of the players who came through Nadal’s academy, which is how she ended up getting this once-in-a-lifetime practice session.
Just days after that practice, Nadal sat down with Movistar+ to talk about retirement life. He joked about the session with Eala, saying as long as he didn’t have to do much running, he was totally fine.
"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."
For most of his life, Nadal’s world revolved around one thing: competing at the absolute highest level. Practice, prepare, perform. Repeat.
That’s all gone now.
But here’s the surprising part – he’s actually happier without all that pressure. The constant stress of having to perform, especially when his body wasn’t cooperating, had started wearing him down. At 39, he’s finally found some peace.
"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."
There’s obviously a trade-off though. He misses that incredible rush of competing against the best players in the world.
"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 basically over now. Roger Federer was recently elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Nadal’s retired, and while Novak Djokovic is still playing, his last Grand Slam win was at the 2023 US Open.
Looking back on those incredible years, Nadal explained just how intense the competition really was between the three of them.
When they started their careers, Pete Sampras held the record with 14 Grand Slams. That seemed like an impossible number to beat.
"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."
None of them could take a break because the other two would keep pushing the boundaries. They were constantly battling each other in finals, always raising the bar higher.
"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."
It’s pretty amazing to think about – three guys who pushed each other so hard that they completely rewrote what was possible in tennis. And according to Nadal, none of them could have reached those heights alone.
The game keeps evolving, but Nadal still believes in trusting your instincts over getting buried in statistics and data. Apparently, that’s something he and Federer agreed on during their legendary rivalry.
