Rafael Nadal has been talking about retiring at some point in 2024, but Novak Djokovic has stated why he believes the player will compete at the French Open in 2025.
It was widely believed that Rafael Nadal, who has dominated Roland-Garros for 20 years, was making his final trip there before hanging up his racket this year.
The 37-year-old “King of Clay,” who has won a record 14 men’s singles titles at the Grand Slam in Paris, even had a goodbye ceremony scheduled.
The organizers of the French Open, however, called off such preparations after Rafael Nadal seemed to reverse course and indicate that he would return in 2025.
Djokovic thinks there are two reasons Nadal will return to Roland-Garros for a final match following his first-round defeat at the hands of Alexander Zverev.
First and foremost, since Nadal is still competing at a very high level, and secondly, because of his unfortunate draw this year, which made the Spaniard play the fourth seed right away.
When Djokovic asked if Nadal intended to play in 2025, Nadal replied, “Yeah, it looks like it.” In my opinion, he performed admirably when compared to his performances in Rome and Barcelona.
“I believe he performed at a significantly elevated caliber.” While he lost in straight sets, the second and third games were very closely contested.
“The match might have been going in a different direction, and he could have easily won one of those two sets.”
“However, he was a little unfortunate with the draw, as Zverev, who was winning Rome, was in excellent form and was serving exceptionally well.”
Playing Sascha when he has such a good feel for the ball is difficult. But watching it was fantastic.
“Aside from Davis Cup matches, of course, I can’t remember the last time I actually watched a set of any match live on that level.”
It was excellent. I noticed that Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek were present, and we were all hoping to catch a peek of the ambience, of that one-of-a-kind moment that might be his last. However, it doesn’t seem that way.