Rafael Nadal has said he doesn’t miss tennis after being recognized for his contribution to the sport at this year’s Laureus Awards in Madrid.
The former world No.1 and 14-time French Open champion was presented with the Laureus Sporting Icon Award on Monday evening. This accolade has only been given to one other athlete so far in the award’s history, Valentino Rossi, in 2022. The gesture follows Nadal’s decision to retire from tennis last season at the Davis Cup Finals in his home country.
“I don’t know how to start, honestly. I didn’t prepare for this amazing moment, talking in front of all of you,” Nadal said. “But a lot of you have been sportspeople that inspired [me] since I was a kid and having the chance to talk in front of you today is something very, very special.”
It is not the first time the king of clay has been recognized at the Laureus Awards. He is the only athlete to have ever won the Sportsman of the Year Award, the Comeback of the Year, the Breakthrough of the Year and the Laureus Sport for Good Award.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Nadal insisted that he is at peace with his decision to end his career. He won 92 Tour-level titles with 22 of those being at Grand Slam events. Nadal has also spent 209 weeks as world No.1, won two Olympic gold medals and earned more than $134.9M in prize money.
“The truth is that I don’t miss tennis. Zero. I don’t miss it at all,” the AFP news agency quotes Nadal as telling reporters.
“But not because I finished tired of tennis or fighting against tennis, not at all.
“I finished my career happy and if I could have, I would have carried on, because I loved what I was doing.
“It was my passion and that’s been the case all my life. It’s just that when you realise that physically you can’t do it any more… you try to close that chapter. And I closed it.”
Elaborating further, Nadal says he tried to play as long as possible despite suffering various injury setbacks. During his career, he missed 11 Grand Slam events due to either knee, feet, ankle, abdomen or wrist problems.
“I delayed making my final decision because I needed time to be sure it was the right one,” he explained.
“What would have been hard was sitting on my sofa wondering if I should keep trying to play.
“When I saw that my body wasn’t going to recover to the level I needed to continue enjoying myself on court, then I made the decision to stop.
“That’s why I don’t miss it,” Nadal added. “Because I finished with the peace of mind of knowing that I’d given it my all, and that my body couldn’t give any more.”
