Nadal reveals he “never lost the love and passion for the game”; goes down in Brisbane doubles first round

Nadal and partner Marc Lopez go down in straight sets to Max Purcel and Jordan Thompson in the first round of Brisbane doubles event

Rafael Nadal at the 2023 Australian Open

Haresh Ramchandani

December 31, 2023

Rafael Nadal‘s comeback has been generating plenty of interest in the weeks leading up to the ATP Brisbane International.

Nadal is not the only Grand Slam-winning tennis superstar to make a comeback in the first week of the new season. Four-time women’s Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka is also making her return to the tour in Brisbane. But speaking to the media on Sunday, Nadal explained why his comeback is different from Osaka’s because unlike the Japanese star, he never lost his love and passion for the game.

“I think Naomi and I (are in a) completely different situation. I think Naomi, if I’m not wrong, she said that she lost a little bit the love for the game for a while and the passion for the game. Something that never happened to me,” the Spaniard said. “So (that’s) the biggest difference. She gets tired or lost little bit the motivation for this game or for this thing. That never happened to me. I had to be away because my body was not able to keep going.”

Nadal admitted he did have moments where he thought about hanging up his rackets for good but decided to keep going and take things day by day as part of his comeback.

The only thing that I am happy is I am here in a position to come back again on a professional tour.
Rafael Nadal

“If I thought about retirement during that period of time? Of course, yes. I had to went through a lot of things to be back. Sometimes, of course, in the low moments, it’s 100% human that you put yourself in a position to say, Okay, makes sense all the things I have to do to be back at 37 years old, knowing probably you will be back and you will not be healthy enough to compete the way that you wanted to compete. Something of that, of course, I was asking to myself.”

“At some point I decided to keep going, no? I had the determination to keep going. When I have that determination, I know sometimes going to be a painful process in terms of working without knowing how the things going to be. But then I just tried to work day by day without thinking much, just doing the things that I had to do, expect the things goes well. Here we are. I don’t know what’s going to happen. The only thing that I am happy is I am here in a position to come back again on a professional tour. You never know what’s going on when that happens. I am excited about what can happen.”

Nadal will make his long-awaited singles comeback on Monday against another former Grand Slam winner attempting to find his way back to the top of the game – Austria’s Dominic Thiem, who came through the qualifiers in Brisbane.

The Spaniard, however, was in action on Sunday at the Brisbane International as he partnered with countryman Marc Lopez in the doubles draw. The Spanish duo went down 6-4, 6-4 to the Australian duo of Max Purcell/ Jordan Thompson in one hour and 11 minutes.