Nadal makes shocking retirement admission post Federer farewell: ‘At Roland Garros I felt it might be my last event’

In the early hours of Saturday in London, Roger Federer bid adieu to tennis after his final match at the 2022 Laver Cup in a doubles alongside Rafael Nadal. The match brought an emotional end to a 24-year-long career for the 20-time Grand Slam winner. It marked the end of an era and certainly the beginning of the end of the greatest period in men’s tennis history. But the period could have probably started a nine month earlier when Nadal was considering retirement ahead of his Australian Open win, or probably in June, when the Spaniard battled with an injured foot to extend his record in French Open. Throughout his long career, Nadal had struggled with a lot many injuries, and on Saturday, moments after Federer’s farewell, the 22-time Slam winner made a shocking retirement admission.

Nadal had come close to hanging his racquet after his struggle with a foot injury that had sidelined him from for a majority of the 2021 season. However, from brink of retirement, Nadal pulled off one of the his most memorable Grand Slam wins in Melbourne. But that’s a story, Nadal had revealed many a time in his interviews this year, but big admission he made after his Laver Cup withdrawal was where he recalled his French Open campaign.

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Speaking to Spanish media outlet AS, Nadal revealed that he felt the 2022 French Open would have been his last ever tournament. Nadal had gone on win that trophy, yet again, for the 14th time but his journey since then has been injury laden.

“I don’t know, I’m not at that moment yet. I was close to that time this year, I’m not going to lie to you. During Roland Garros I thought that it might be my last tournament, this is the reality. Although from then on everything went very bad physically, I broke my abdominal twice, at Wimbledon and in New York. It has been an accumulation of important misfortunes, added to all these personal things. But I’m not in that moment and I don’t want to think about that moment. Today, what I want is to get back to normality, for everything to go well with my personal life, which is the top priority, and then organise my life in the right way. Have peace of mind in my personal and professional life,” he said.