{"id":32452,"date":"2025-03-12T04:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T04:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=32452"},"modified":"2025-03-12T04:00:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T04:00:56","slug":"rafael-nadal-shares-the-moment-he-knew-it-was-time-to-retire-from-tennis-there-was-no-coming-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=32452","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Nadal shares the moment he knew it was time to retire from tennis, there was no coming back"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-2451280\"><strong>Rafael Nadal is one of the greatest tennis players of all time with 22 Grand Slams to his name, including a record 14 French Open titles. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sharing the stage with long-time rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic for the best part of two decades, Nadal carved out a legendary career.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>The king of clay announced his retirement from tennis in October last year via an emotional video message on social media that sent shockwaves through the sports world.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard played his last match at the 2024 Davis Cup where, representing his home country for the final time, he ultimately fell to Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/static\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2164775507-1024x683.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 991px) 100vw, 800px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/static\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2164775507-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/static\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2164775507-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/static\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2164775507-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/static\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2164775507-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" alt=\"Rafael Nadal shares the moment he knew it was time to retire from tennis, there was no coming back\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption title=\"Rafael Nadal of Team Spain celebrates with partner (out of frame) Carlos Alcaraz of Team Spain against Austin Krajicek of Team United States and Ra...\">Photo by Quality Sport Images\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nadal, despite arguably still capable of beating many players in world tennis, ultimately knew when to call it a day.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-rafael-nadal-says-he-knew-it-was-time-to-retire-after-the-olympics\">Rafael Nadal says he knew it was time to retire after the Olympics<\/h2>\n<p>Nadal played at the Olympics for the final time last summer in Paris, hoping to make one last run at the games by playing on his preferred surface of clay at Stade Roland Garros.<\/p>\n<p>The two-time gold medalist made it to the second round, where he lost to Novak Djokovic 6-1, 6-4, in what was a dominant display from the Serb.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Andy Roddick on the \u2018Served\u2019 Podcast, Nadal said: \u201cAfter the Olympics, I came back home and I said: Ok it\u2019s over, I feel it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m gonna come back being competitive at a level that motivates me.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>MORE RAFAEL NADAL STORIES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI have been practicing all my career with very high intensity \u2013 that\u2019s the way that I understand the sport. That\u2019s the way that I enjoy the sport, so when I am not able to do that anymore, then for me it\u2019s not anymore that interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Rafa Nadal Interview | Served with Andy Roddick\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_SvPnVAJyVI?feature=oembed\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-nadal-s-injuries-proved-too-much-in-the-latter-stages-of-his-career\">Nadal\u2019s injuries proved too much in the latter stages of his career<\/h2>\n<p>Nadal was still competing for the grandest prizes in tennis in 2022, having won both the Australian Open and Roland Garros that year, but suffered an abdominal tear at Wimbledon that would put an end to his dominance.<\/p>\n<p>Nadal played just two tournaments in 2023 before undergoing surgery that would keep him out of action until January 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard told Roddick: \u201cAfter the surgery, things went more or less well. After that, I started the recovery process, so after six or seven months, I started practicing and I felt quite well, the problem is I had the feeling I was not able to push. I felt some limitations in that area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll these months have been difficult because in some way, I felt like okay, let\u2019s keep fighting because at some point maybe it\u2019s gonna work well, but after weeks, I was able to compete, but I was not able to compete at the level I wanted. I was not able to move the way that I used to move.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He knew&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rafael Nadal shares the moment he knew it was time to retire from tennis, there was no coming back - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=32452\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rafael Nadal shares the moment he knew it was time to retire from tennis, there was no coming back - 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