Spanish tennis icon Rafael Nadal stands among the sport’s most dominant and decorated names. After an illustrious career spanning 23 years, the Spaniard bid farewell last year, leaving behind a plethora of moments and achievements. A year on from his retirement, Nadal admits he still misses the competitiveness and the irreplaceable adrenaline that tennis alone has ever given him.
Apart from that, he even opened up about his practice session with Filipino professional tennis player Alexandra Eala.
Rafael Nadal Discusses His Session With Alexandra Eala and the Challenge of Stepping Away From Tennis
Since turning pro in 2001, Nadal shaped one of the greatest legacies in tennis. The Spaniard amassed 92 tour-level titles, with 22 Grand Slams among them. His ironclad rule on clay, highlighted by 14 French Open triumphs and 63 titles on the surface, earned him the title of ‘King of Clay.’
Nadal capped his career with 36 Masters 1000 titles and two Olympic gold medals. He stepped away from the sport after 23 years, retiring at 38 with a formidable 1080–228 record. It may feel recent, but on 19 November 2024, the Spaniard contested his final professional match in the Davis Cup’s Final 8.
Nearly a year after his swansong, Nadal spoke with journalist José Morgado in a short exchange later shared on X. Just days earlier, the Spaniard had returned to the court at the Rafael Nadal Academy for a hit with rising WTA talent Eala, an experience he recounted during their conversation.
“I played 45 minutes with Eala, they asked me to play and I was happy to do it. If I don’t have to run, that’s fine. Through the academy I’m still involved and I watch whatever I feel like. I don’t follow the day-to-day like before,” he said.
A nice interview with Nadal tonight at Movistar+ one year after his retirement.
His relationship with tennis atm.
“I played 45 minutes with Eala, they asked me to play and I was happy to do it. If I don’t have to run, that’s fine. Through the academy I’m still involved and I… pic.twitter.com/RQwaO9b6Mz— José Morgado (@josemorgado) November 25, 2025
Nadal later shared that retirement has brought him peace because he no longer faces the daily pressure to perform. Competing under difficult conditions often drained him emotionally, sometimes preventing him from feeling the happiness.
“I gained peace, in the sense that, in a way, you don’t feel that daily responsibility to perform. Sometimes performing under unsuitable conditions wears you down as a person, and you end up not being as happy as someone like me should be,” he said.
Nadal admitted that the toughest part of retirement is letting go of a phase that was deeply meaningful. The adrenaline of top-level competition stays with him, and while life offers other rewards, nothing fully matches the intensity he found in sport.
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“The bad thing is, in the end, a stage that was exceptionally beautiful and exciting for me has ended. Something I was truly passionate about has gone: competing at the highest level. That adrenaline, it stays forever. I think you replace it with many other things in life that can be better in many ways, but what you find in sport is hard to find elsewhere,” he added.
Nadal’s final outing came at the Davis Cup, where he fell 4–6, 4–6 to Botic van de Zandschulp. Team Spain’s hopes ended soon after, with Carlos Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers’s 7–6(4), 7–6(3) defeat to Wesley Koolhof and van de Zandschulp in the doubles.
