The 22-time main champion Rafael Nadal addressed the prospect that 2024 may very well be his last 12 months as an ATP skilled, confessing that it’s certainly a actuality that he may dangle up his racquets on the finish of subsequent season.
Nadal has erred on the aspect of warning since naming the 2024 season as a doable venue for his comeback. With a full 12 months out of the sport as a consequence of an iliopsoas damage in his left leg, the Spaniard is now counting down the times till his return to skilled event tennis on the ATP 250 in Brisbane, which begins on December 29.
However, the Spaniard additionally said that it “makes no sense” to ascertain a retirement date. In a current social media video, the 22-time Grand Slam champion mentioned the potential of retiring, including that there’s even an opportunity he’ll retire halfway via the season if his physique doesn’t cooperate.
In a season with further incentives, such because the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the place tennis will probably be performed on Roland Garros clay, the Spaniard has merely conveyed a message of hope. Only time will inform what the boundaries of his choices are, together with the date of the top of a profession that has already gone down in trendy sports activities historical past.
“It is a reality, there are many chances that it will be my last year, without any doubt. There are chances that it may only be half a year. There are possibilities that it may be a full year. There are possibilities that we may not be able to reach all that. These are things that right now I do not have the capacity to be able to answer. I am only in conditions to say that I return to compete. There are many possibilities that it is my last year and I am going to enjoy the tournaments in that way,” Nadal stated as quoted by ATP.
At the identical time, he said that every one of those are merely potentialities and that he has no method of figuring out what the long run holds for his profession. For the time being, Nadal is content material to relive the fun of enjoying on the biggest degree. Furthermore, the 37-year-old claimed that he didn’t need to make an official declaration since it could make him a slave to his personal phrases. Instead, he supposed to take issues in the future at a time, presumably persevering with to play after subsequent season if his physique permits it.
“I do not want to announce it because in the end I do not know what can happen and I have to give myself the opportunity not to say one thing and then I can be a slave of what I have said. I think it is going to be like that but I can’t be 100 per cent sure because in the end I have worked a lot to come back to compete and if suddenly things and my physique allows me to continue and I enjoy what I do… why am I going to set a deadline?” he defined.
