Rafael Nadal admits 2024 could be ‘my final year’ ahead of Brisbane comeback

Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal has admitted that there is a “good chance” that 2024 could be his last year in the sport as he prepares for a comeback.

Nadal, 37, hasn’t played since being knocked out in the second round of the Australian Open by Mackenzie McDonald, picking up a nasty-looking injury during the match.

It proved to be a serious injury, keeping Nadal out for the rest of the season as he underwent hip surgery in the summer to try and get himself back to a level where he could play again.

In the latest, published on Thursday, he admitted that he has often thought about the idea of not returning but he wanted to try and end his career on his terms.

“Of course I have thought many times that it did not make sense to continue playing, that in the end there have been many years, many things, many hours of work in which I did not see the result,” he said.

“But I still think what I said in the last press conference, that I do not deserve to end my career in a press room.

“I would like to finish my career in a different way, and I have fought and kept the illusion for that to happen with doubts, with bad moments, very bad or better moments but I think I have had the right people around me as I have always had throughout my career.

“I think everyone has helped me decisively to be where I am today, which is with the option of returning to compete, and I think that also the desire of people who want to watch me play again has also an important impact on my day to day.”

He also said that there is a chance that 2024 could be his last year in the sport because at the moment, there are still too many unknowns about how his body is going to hold up.

“There are chances that it may only be half a year, there are possibilities that it may be a full year, there are possibilities that we may not be able to reach all that,” Nadal explained.

“These are things right now that I do not have the capacity to be able to answer, this is the truth. I am only in conditions to say that I return to compete that I continue having in my head that the normal thing or that there are many possibilities, that it is my last year, and I am going to enjoy the tournaments in that way.

“I do not want to announce it because in the end I do not know what can happen and I have to give myself the opportunity not to say one thing and then I can be a slave of what I have said.

“I think it is going to be like that but I can’t be 100% sure to come back to compete and if suddenly things and my physique allows me to continue and I enjoy what I do why am I going to set a deadline? I think it makes no sense.”

Should Nadal step away in 2024 he will become the second member of the men’s Big Three to do so, with Swiss legend Roger Federer retiring in 2022.

It would leave Novak Djokovic as the only member still playing, with the Serbian enjoying a stellar year in 2023, winning three Grand Slams and picking up the ATP Finals in Turin as well.

Djokovic is now 24 slams, two ahead of Nadal and four ahead of Federer.

The trio have dominated men’s tennis over the past twenty years with only nine players other than those three winning a slam since 2004.

Of those players only Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem and Carlos Alcaraz are active.