<figure id="attachment_3040193" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3040193" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3040193" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/be633db2-rafael-nadal.jpg" alt="Rafael Nadal" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3040193" class="wp-caption-text">Rafael Nadal was honoured with a Sporting Icon award at the Laureus World Sport Awards in Madrid. (AP pic)</figcaption></figure>
MADRID: Rafael Nadal insisted on Monday that he doesn&#8217;t &#8220;miss tennis&#8221; after being honoured with a Sporting Icon award at the Laureus World Sport Awards in Madrid.
The 38-year-old Spaniard, winner of 22 Grand Slam trophies, including 14 at Roland Garros, retired from the sport after his final match at the Davis Cup in Malaga in November.
&#8220;The truth is that I don&#8217;t miss tennis. Zero. I don&#8217;t miss it at all,&#8221; Nadal told reporters.
&#8220;But not because I finished tired of tennis or fighting against tennis, not at all.
&#8220;I finished my career happy and if I could have, I would have carried on, because I loved what I was doing.
&#8220;It was my passion and that&#8217;s been the case all my life. It&#8217;s just that when you realise that physically you can&#8217;t do it any more&#8230; you try to close that chapter. And I closed it.&#8221;
Nadal suffered numerous injuries during his career but resisted retiring as long as possible.
&#8220;I delayed making my final decision because I needed time to be sure it was the right one.
&#8220;What would have been hard was sitting on my sofa wondering if I should keep trying to play.
&#8220;When I saw that my body wasn&#8217;t going to recover to the level I needed to continue enjoying myself on court, then I made the decision to stop.
&#8220;That&#8217;s why I don&#8217;t miss it,&#8221; Nadal added. &#8220;Because I finished with the peace of mind of knowing that I&#8217;d given it my all, and that my body couldn&#8217;t give any more.&#8221;

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