Rafael Nadal hasn’t ruled out playing past 2024 despite the Spaniard initially affirming he would likely retire from the sport at the end of next season. Although he admits there is a good chance that it will be the cut-off point for his career, the 22-time Grand Slam winner is willing to reconsider his decision if he can compete at a level that “excites” him.
“I said that possibly 2024 will be my last year,” Nadal told Spanish newspaper AS Diario. “I stand by that, but I can’t confirm it 100 per cent. I think there’s a good chance that it will be, because I know how my body is but how I’ll be in four months, I don’t know.
“I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in 2024, because it will change completely depending on what my objectives are. If I don’t recover, that’s one thing, if I can compete at a level that excites me, that’s another.
“My hope is, by mid-November, to know how I am physically. These are the deadlines I have set for myself.”
Nadal has been plagued by psoas, hip and foot injuries over the past 12 months which have kept him out of action for the majority of 2023. While Nadal has been sidelined, Novak Djokovic, only one year his junior, is still at the top of his game and regularly winning major tournaments.
The 37-year-old concedes that Djokovic’s successes have a lot to do with him treating his body better than him during his formative years. “I would change many things in my life and my career,” he told Movistar. “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. I have missed four and a half years of Grand Slams in my sporting career.
“This is reality and that is also what sport is about. That does not mean I am better than Djokovic because I have played less. He has been better because he has had a better physique or a way of playing that has allowed him to play more than me.
“You can live frustrated with 22 Grand Slams, for example, Novak lives it in a more intense way. For him, it would have been a greater frustration not to achieve it. Perhaps that is why he achieved it.”
