Rafael Nadal’s storied career hangs in the balance.
Following his singles defeat to long-time rival Novak Djokovic on Monday, where he fell in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, Nadal opened up about his body’s condition and voiced that a decision regarding the future of his career would be made after the Paris Games.
“When this tournament is over, I will take the necessary decisions based on my feelings and desire. It is difficult to recover if I am thinking about whether I retire,” the 38-year-old told reporters after the match.
“For many people it makes little sense, I have been suffering for two years.”
The Spanish star’s tennis career has been littered with injuries, with his most recent being a hip injury that kept him out the majority of the 2023 season.
“If I feel that I am not competitive I will make the decision to stop. I just try my best every single day, trying to enjoy a thing that I have been enjoying for so much time,” the 2008 Olympic gold medalist said.
The 38-year-old Nadal, who has long been dubbed the “King of Clay” fought tooth and nail in the second set against the Serbian star, leveling the score 4-4 after trailing 4-0.
However, he was a shell of himself, lacking speed and his lefty power, even on his signature red clay, where he’s clinched a record 14 French Open titles.
‘I knew there was a chance it was going to be like that,” he said. “I wasn’t able to play at the level I needed to play at to create problems for him [Djokovic].”
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Revealing his lack of physicality, Nadal had described his tournament schedule as “outrageous,” referencing the 12-hour turnaround he had between his doubles match on Saturday and first-round singles match on Sunday.
“I don’t have the legs of 20 years ago. Without the ball quality and without the legs of 20 years ago, you’re not going to create problems for the best player in history,” Nadal said.
The two titans, who share a long historic rivalry on the court, even staggering 46 Grand Slam titles between them, embraced at the net after the match, with Djokovic applauding his opponent off the court.
“I never thought back in 2006 that we’d still be playing each other almost 20 years later,” Nadal said.
It appears the future of Nadal’s career will likely come down to how much his body has left in the tank.
However, though it’s in question, he is not closing the door just yet.