John McEnroe assessed when Rafael Nadal may retire from professional tennis.
Father time eventually catches up with all athletes and the Spaniard appears to be nearing the end of a truly illustrious career.
After sustaining injury at the 2023 Australian Open he missed the rest of the season and played sparingly in 2024.
Nadal has played just 19 singles matches this season, with the most recent of these coming against great rival Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Olympic Games.
It does not appear that he will compete for the rest of the season and it remains to be seen how much longer Nadal will play beyond 2024.
How much longer does John McEnroe think Rafael Nadal will keep playing?
Rafael Nadal announced via a statement posted by the Laver Cup that he will no longer be taking part in the team event.
This would have been his fourth Laver Cup appearance but with him no longer set to compete, Nadal’s future in tennis is unclear.
As he gets older and becomes even more susceptible to injuries, this prompted John McEnroe to guess when Nadal may hang up his racket.
“He still seems like he has an appetite to play. It seems like he is trying to get the body up to a level where he feels like he can play. Maybe see what he can do at the start of next year?,” McEnroe said.
“He really loves to play, more than almost anyone I’ve ever seen, but we’ve watched Andy Murray for the last six years trying to get back to that level and it’s hard when your body lets you down.
“It’s hard to walk away when you still want to play and you look at Murray and he wanted it so bad. It sucks when your body doesn’t cooperate and we will see with Rafa. I’d be a little surprised if he carried on playing.”
When did Rafael Nadal last play?
Nadal has played just 19 singles matches this year, the last of which came at the Paris Olympic Games in July.
Despite battling a thigh issue, Nadal overcame Marton Fucsovics in three sets to reach round two where he faced Djokovic for the 60th time.
As is always the case with Nadal, he competed hard against Djokovic at the Olympics, but it was always going to be a tough challenge for him given his fitness and lack of matches.
He suffered a 6-1, 6-4 defeat in the Parisian sunshine and he has not competed in a singles match since.
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