Rafael Nadal enjoyed one of the most remarkable and successful careers in tennis, but even the best players have regrets and suffered painful losses.
Nadal officially announced his retirement on Thursday – with his last tournament at the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga – and tributes have been flooding in ever since.
The ‘King of Clay’, a 22-time Grand Slam winner, could play his last professional match on November 19 if Spain fail to progress past the Netherlands.
The 38-year-old will rightly be remembered as one of the greatest players to pick up a racket, but fans are keen to know if Nadal has any significant career regrets.
Here’s everything you need to know…
Rafael Nadal regrets that he didn’t protect his ‘physique’ like Novak Djokovic
Nadal has previously admitted to regrets over how he managed his body in the twilight years of his career, which resulted in injury problems and various missed tournaments.
‘I missed four and a half years of Grand Slams due to injury,’ Nadal said in September 2023. ‘This is the reality. But that’s also sport.
‘[Novak Djokovic] had a physique and a way of playing that allowed him to compete more than me.
‘I have no choice but to recognise this, I did what I could. I would change many things in my life and my career.
‘I have made wrong decisions when it comes to protecting my physique. Djokovic, he has done better because his way of playing has allowed him to play more than me. But I was wrong for thinking that my decisions were good.’
Rafael Nadal regrets that he never got to play Roger Federer in New York
Nadal and Roger Federer formed an incredible rivalry and locked horns 40 times on the ATP Tour, with nine of those meetings coming in major finals.
Interestingly, though, Nadal and Federer never played against each other in New York – home of the US Open – and the Spaniard wishes that was not the case.
‘We shared a lot of important things together, no?’ Nadal said in June 2022. ‘I think in some way all the things that we achieved, [it is] difficult to think about tennis in the last 15, 20 years without thinking about the rivalry that we have.
‘Because we have been playing in every big stadium, not in New York, that’s the only thing that bothers me a little bit, that we never played in New York.
‘But in the rest of the most important events of the world, we shared the court, fighting for the most important things.’
Rafael Nadal’s most painful losses to Novak Djokovic
Nadal has experienced several significant losses to Big Three rival Novak Djokovic throughout his career.
The 2012 Australian Open final was particularly heartbreaking for Nadal, who suffered defeat after nearly six hours on the court, in what became one of the longest finals in Grand Slam history.
That will undoubtedly be among Nadal’s most painful career losses as well as his defeat to Djokovic at the Olympic Games in Paris earlier this year at his favourite location, Roland-Garros.
Nadal had been hoping to clinch a medal in one his last-ever professional events but Djokovic beat him 6-1 6-4 – moving 31-29 up in their overall head-to-head – before going on to clinch singles gold himself.
Rafael Nadal suffered heartbreaking defeats to Andy Murray and Roger Federer
Nadal has also suffered painful defeats to Andy Murray and Federer across his career.
Murray shocked Nadal on his beloved clay surface – in front of a home crowd – in the 2015 Madrid Open final, which marked a significant shift in the sport, with the British icon going on to dominate the ATP Tour across 2016.
Another heartbreaking moment came for Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open final against Federer.
The Swiss hero won that showdown in five sets, beating Nadal for the first time in a Grand Slam final since Wimbledon 2007.
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