Rafael Nadal before his return to Brisbane: “Of course I thought about retirement”

“You’ve already mentioned that 2024 might be your last season, is that the last time you play in Australia?
The problem with saying this is my last season is that I can’t predict 100% what will happen in the future. Obviously there’s a good chance this will be my last tour of Australia. But if I’m here next year, don’t tell me I said it would be my last (smile). It’s just highly likely. I don’t know how the next six months will go. I don’t know if my body will allow me to enjoy tennis as much as I have the last 20 years. If it will allow me to be competitive, not in the sense of winning the biggest tournaments but in the way that makes me happy: feeling like I can step on the court and compete with anyone. It doesn’t matter at the end of the day if I won or lost. If I managed to have this feeling…

You trained with Andy Murray on Saturday and he found you in good shape. And you, how are you feeling?
If you ask my colleagues, they are not going to come here and say that Rafa is a disaster (smile). What they say doesn’t have much value because, in their position, I would do like them and not say negative things about a colleague. If you look at it realistically, I’m happy with the way I’m training. Of course, I don’t have the expectations I had in the past. It’s been a year (since he hasn’t played a competitive match), I had an operation and I haven’t had much time to reach a decent level. For me, what happens next is a little unpredictable. As for how things will go in competition, it’s very difficult to say.

“I didn’t miss competing because my body wasn’t ready the whole time”

How much have you missed competing?
I missed feeling ready to compete. I didn’t miss competing because all this time my body wasn’t ready. When you feel this bad, you can’t miss competition. What I missed was being healthy, waking up, not being in pain, having the chance to have a normal life. And when I started to feel ready, like now, of course I couldn’t wait to come back and compete again. It’s something I like. If I didn’t have the determination and passion, I wouldn’t be here.

Have you thought about retirement during this long absence?
If I thought about retirement during this time? Yes of course. I had to go through a lot to be back. It’s 100% human to question yourself. Does it make sense to do all this at 37, knowing that there’s a possibility that I won’t come back the way I want to come back? At some point I decided to continue. I know it can be a painful process doing things without knowing how it will turn out. This is where we are. I don’t know what’s going to happen. The only thing I’m happy about is being able to return to the professional circuit. »