MADRID, SPAIN - APRIL 21: Rafa Nadal attend the Winners Walk during the Laureus World Sports Awards Madrid 2025 at Galería De Cristal on April 21, 2025 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images for Laureus)
Twenty-two-time
Grand Slam winner
Rafael Nadal, who retired last November after a Davis Cup tie in Malaga, revealed that he did not miss his time on the court. Nadal was honored on Monday with the prestigious
Sporting Icon award
at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid.
“The truth is that I don’t miss tennis. Zero. I don’t miss it at all,” Nadal told reporters.
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“But not because I finished tired of tennis or fighting against tennis, not at all. I finished my career happy, and if I could have, I would have carried on, because I loved what I was doing. It was my passion, and that’s been the case all my life.
"It’s just that when you realise that physically you can’t do it any more… you try to close that chapter. And I closed it,” he added.
Rafael Nadal admitted that he sort of dragged his retirement.
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"I delayed making my final decision because I needed time to be sure it was the right one. What would have been hard was sitting on my sofa wondering if I should keep trying to play," he said.
"When I saw that my body wasn’t going to recover to the level I needed to continue enjoying myself on court, then I made the decision to stop.
“That’s why I don’t miss it. Because I finished with the peace of mind of knowing that I’d given it my all, and that my body couldn’t give any more,” Nadal added.
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