Rafael Nadal has addressed his future after skipping the US Open.
Rafael Nadal has dropped a further hint regarding his probable retirement after being told to hang up his racket immediately.
The injury-prone The Spaniard has played a fairly limited schedule since returning from surgery this year.
His most recent appearance was in the Olympics, when he failed to win a medal despite competing in both the singles and doubles events.
Nadal then withdrew out of the US Open, and he has since taken some time off. The 22-time Grand Slam winner was at Son Moix Stadium on Sunday night to watch his two football sides, Real Madrid and Mallorca, compete.
And he provided a quick update on his future plans, indicating that he had yet to decide on retirement. “I am not in a period of reflection, I am on vacation,” he told El Desmarque. “I try not to think about problems when on vacation so that they will be better. I’ll return to training on Monday; I have the Laver Cup in a few weeks, but I’ll take it easy.
“I am not in a hurry to make a decision; when I do, I will let you know without delay. I can’t live each day thinking about when I’ll retire; I’m on my own path, and when I make a decision, we’ll all know.”
The Laver Cup, a Ryder Cup-style team tournament co-created by Roger Federer, is Nadal’s only commitment for the remainder of the season. This year’s edition takes place in Berlin from September 20 to 22.
The former world number one has represented Team Europe in the Laver Cup three times. His last performance came in 2022, when he teamed up with Federer in the doubles to mark the Swiss star’s retirement.
It remains to be seen if the Laver Cup will be Nadal’s farewell tournament. However, Express Sport readers believe the 38-year-old should have retired already. When asked if Nadal should retire after the Olympics, a whopping 74% of readers replied yes, despite his refusal to discuss retirement in Paris.
Nadal fell to Novak Djokovic in the second round and was asked if he had played his last singles match at Stade Roland Garros, the French Open venue that also hosted tennis at the Olympics.
“Every day, huh? Every day you want me to retire every day guys. You ask me for that every single day,” he snapped back. “I have been suffering a lot of injuries the last two years so if I feel that I am not competitive enough to keep going or physically I’m not ready enough to keep going, I will stop and I will let you know. But I mean, I don’t think every day about if I am retiring or not.”