{"id":51168,"date":"2025-05-26T02:30:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T02:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51168"},"modified":"2025-05-26T02:30:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T02:30:03","slug":"rafa-nadal-reads-brutal-text-message-from-murray-in-french-open-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51168","title":{"rendered":"Rafa Nadal reads brutal text message from Murray in French Open press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\"Rafa<\/picture>\n

Rafael Nadal shared a brutal message he got from Andy Murray (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After a tearful ceremony on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Rafael Nadal was back on top form when he addressed the media at the French Open. The 14-time champion in Paris was reunited with three of his biggest rivals – Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray – during the presentation.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t the first time he had heard from Murray since retiring from professional tennis in November. The Spaniard got his phone out in the middle of his press conference to share a hilarious text message he received from Murray, one of their first exchanges after they both retired last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Along with Federer and Djokovic, Murray took to the centre court at Roland Garros to pay tribute to Nadal and his record 14 titles here on Sunday afternoon. Nadal was emotional as he addressed his Big Four rivals, telling them they had \u201cachieved their dreams\u201d together.<\/p>\n

Their conversations continued when they walked off the court, with cameras capturing a heartwarming moment Nadal\u2019s son shared with his dad\u2019s three rivals, giving them all high-fives.<\/p>\n

The \u2018King of Clay\u2019 later said they had chatted about \u201clife and families\u201d when they met up again in the tunnels of Court Philippe-Chatrier, before sharing a hilarious tale about a message he got from Murray after they both hung up their rackets.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy good friend Andy, we were not in touch for a while,\u201d the 22-time Major winner started. \u201cThe day that Arsenal beat Real Madrid, when the match just finished, after one second, he text me a message, telling me\u2026 I\u2019m gonna read because it\u2019s quite good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadal cut himself off, getting his phone out and scrolling through until he got to Murray\u2019s message. \u201cI feel that it\u2019s quite interesting,\u201d he added, explaining why he was going to such lengths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\"Rafa<\/picture>\n

Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray attended Rafael Nadal’s ceremony (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201c\u2018Hey Rafa, haven\u2019t spoken to you in a while. Just checking in to make sure you are okay\u2019,\u201d he recited.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, honestly, [it] take me like five seconds to realise what I was reading, because at the beginning, I said, \u2018Okay, he\u2019s such a nice guy. He\u2019s sking how I\u2019m doing, family.\u2019 After five seconds, I said, \u2018This always British sense of humour!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadal also made it clear that he didn\u2019t stoop to Murray\u2019s level when Arsenal eventually got knocked out of the Champions League. \u201cBy the way, I didn’t text him back when Inter beat Arsenal. Well, PSG, sorry,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

Touching on Murray\u2019s surprise appearance with Federer and Djokovic, the Spaniard revealed that he had no idea they\u2019d be there, though it wasn\u2019t completely unexpected.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI didn’t know, but I could imagine that they come. That’s true. The agendas of people sometimes are difficult. But of course, probably they know that they are going make that day very special and that day is going to be very special for me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cNovak is playing here, so it’s easier. But in the same time Andy and Roger, that just came on purpose, meant a lot to me. Because, at the end, they represent a very important part of my tennis career, because in some way we pushed each other to the limits, as I said in my speech. And that’s the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for their years of competition, the 38-year-old was glad that he had more than one big rival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I always say the same, because we were three, four of the best rivals. In some way when you are only two, you know, you can lose a little bit the motivation in some way sometimes because the other start losing or gets injured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut here, being four, you never had to imagine, because always one of that four was winning the tournament. So that, to put in perspective, never allowed us to stay relaxed or to give us the break in terms of intensity, in terms of the determination of keep improving our game.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think within us, we show the way to follow to be better and better. We achieved our dreams. And probably because of that kind of rivalry we raised the numbers of the history of tennis to the next level. And that helps to the next generations to try to improve them. And I’m sure that’s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal whipped out his phone to share a hilarious message he received from Andy Murray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"yoast_head":"\nRafa Nadal reads brutal text message from Murray in French Open press conference - 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=51168\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rafa Nadal reads brutal text message from Murray in French Open press conference - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rafael Nadal whipped out his phone to share a hilarious message he received from Andy Murray.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51168\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-26T02:30:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3-142.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51168\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51168\",\"name\":\"Rafa Nadal reads brutal text message from Murray in French Open press conference - 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