Rafael Nadal’s revelation on Thursday rocked the sporting world to its core, as he announced when his last-ever tennis match would be.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion has achieved all there really was to within the sport, and his departure from it should come as little surprise.
After all, his body had been routinely failing him for years now, and it marked a sad sight to have to watch him struggle so badly.
However, rather ironically so, Toni Nadal has just revealed when he thought his nephew had suffered his worst-ever loss, which came over a decade ago now.
Toni Nadal recalls Rafa Nadal’s worst loss
Speaking to MARCA, the infamous uncle of the legendary Spanish tennis star has once again been in the news chatting about Rafa.
However, on this occasion, it’s pertinent, especially given Rafa Nadal announced his retirement from tennis earlier this week.
The sporting world has flooded to offer countless touching eulogies for the 38-year-old, who transcended tennis with his excellence.
Toni has sought to maintain a more grounded approach to looking back on his career though, and would instead claim: ‘Since 2005, Rafa has been unable to finish 90% training sessions because of injuries. He took painkillers in every Grand Slam.’
He continued: ‘The worst defeat was the Australian final against Djokovic in 2012. I haven’t watched that match again because I left devastated. The injuries made us live with the sword of Damocles without knowing when Rafael’s career would end. We always thought it would end soon. The retirements due to injury, at Roland Garros, in Australia.’
The tennis world has rushed to praise Rafael Nadal
It was only natural that, when Rafael Nadal announced his retirement, that tennis would come to a standstill.
And, the list of those who have rushed to laud him really is innumerable.
Carlos Alcaraz delivered his reaction to Nadal’s retirement with a touching paragraph on Instagram, before Djokovic claimed a part of him had left with Nadal leaving tennis.
These are two of the sport’s greatest current players, and even Cristiano Ronaldo praised Nadal for a legendary career.
Other high-profile names to laud him include Jose Mourinho, Andy Roddick, Chris Evert, Jannik Sinner and Boris Becker, to name but a few.
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