“It’s over… I feel it” – Nadal on the moment he knew his career was finished

The Spaniard retired from tennis in November 2024, having cemented his place in history as one of the very greatest to ever play the sport

Rafael Nadal retires at the 2024 Davis Cup (Manu Fernandez/AP/SIPA)

Tennis Majors

March 11, 2025

Rafael Nadal has revealed that it was after arriving home following his appearance at the Paris 2024 Olympics that he knew for certain his career was over.

Speaking to Andy Roddick on the American’s ‘Served’ podcast, the great Spaniard opened up on the difficulties of the past year, attempting to play himself back into shape and the moment he knew it was time to hang up his racquet.

“After the surgery things went more or less well, we started the recovery process, take six or seven months,” Nadal said.

“I started practising, I felt quite well, but the problem is I still had the feeling that I was not able to push, I felt some limitations in that area.

“So I gave myself time to see if I am able to recover myself the proper way, because in terms of tennis, I still felt well in myself, still felt competitive, I didn’t feel like I lost speed on the ball, just needed to recover the physical confidence and take out the limitations.

“That’s why all these months had been difficult because in some way I felt at some point maybe that it’s going to go well, I was able to compete, but I was not able to compete at the level that I wanted for different reasons, because I was not playing well maybe.”

Nadal competed alongside his compatriot Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s doubles, winning two matches before going down to the eventual silver medallists – American duo Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.

In the singles, Nadal navigated his way through one round before falling in a one-sided defeat to his greatest rival, Novak Djokovic, who went on to win gold.

Such was the chastening nature of the defeat, on his hallowed Roland-Garros turf no less, that it felt as though the end was perhaps in sight for Nadal, something which the Spaniard has now revealed was indeed the case after the Games.

“Inside myself, I was not able to move the way that I was used to moving,” Nadal continued.

“After the Olympics, I came back home and said ‘it’s over, I feel it’.

“Before I didn’t feel it, I wanted to give myself the time. But after that, I say ‘okay, it doesn’t make sense, I don’t feel like with this issue I’m going to come back and be competitive at the level that motivates me.’

“When I felt that, it was over.”

Nadal finally waved farewell to tennis at the 2024 Davis Cup last November, leaving the sport as one of the greatest players to ever have picked up a racquet.

The Spaniard called time on his career having won 22 Grand Slam singles titles and becoming an Olympic gold medallist in 2008. He won a total of 92 ATP titles, and led Spain to the Davis Cup title 5 times.