Important points
Rafael Nadal has no intention of following Serena Williams back into professional tennis. “That chapter is over,” Nadal told CNBC Sports. Just days after Williams, also an all-time great, said he would compete in a professional event again at age 44. Nadal, 40, retired in November 2024 after suffering repeated injuries. “I’m very proud of my tennis career and now I’m building the next career,” Nadal said in an interview promoting his new documentary Rafa, which will be released on Netflix on May 29. “I’m in the next chapter of my life.” The 22-time Grand Slam champion said he has his eye on the Rafael Nadal Academy, a tennis training center he helped open on the Spanish island of Mallorca, where Nadal grew up and still lives. Nadal’s business is now expanding across Europe and the Americas, and he is also growing a charitable foundation focused on sports and education projects in Spain and India. Nadal does not rule out becoming a coach in the future, but said it is “not in my life plans” at the moment. Other top players such as Andy Murray, Jimmy Connors, Michael Chang and Ivan Lendl have also made the transition from player to coach to stay involved in the game. Apart from his future plans, Nadal also touched on various other topics during the interview. Nadal’s on-court quirks included consistent rituals and ticks he performed to stay focused, such as lining up his water bottles, avoiding stepping on the line, and touching his shirt or headband before serving. Nadal said these habits never continued off the court and will not continue after he retires. “People think I’m superstitious on a daily basis because I did all these things while competing, but to be honest, that’s not the case,” Nadal said. “I gained zero on the tennis court in real life. In a way, it was a way to protect myself while competing and I had to focus on what I needed to do. Tennis is a sport where you have to be ready to play every day.” Nadal previously said that Novak Djokovic, who holds the all-time record for men’s Grand Slam titles with 24, is the best player of all time. He said two of the top stars in tennis today, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, both have a chance to become new all-time greats if they stay healthy. Still, he said Djokovic is only the strongest because he has won the most Grand Slams, and that he will only become the greatest of all time if Alcaraz or Sinner surpass Djokovic’s record. “It’s all about numbers,” Nadal said. “When I say Novak is the greatest tennis player in history, it’s because the numbers say so. You have to think about numbers when deciding who is the GOAT. You have to play well for a super long period of time. It looks like they have no competition today, but it’s up to the new players that come on tour, but if they stay away from injury, there’s no telling how tough they’ll be to win that often. Life is unpredictable.”
