‘Tennis turned into an addiction for Rafael Nadal – it was unhealthy’, claims former world No 9
Former world No 9 Andrea Petkovic expressed her view that tennis turned into “an addiction” for Rafael Nadal as she reflected on the Spanish icon’s retirement.
The retired WTA star, who is now a tennis analyst, believes it was noticeable that playing the sport became “hurtful” and “unhealthy” for Nadal at a certain point.
Nadal brought the curtain down on his glittering career on Spanish soil at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in Malaga last week.
The 38-year-old legend was beaten by Botic van de Zandschulp in his final match as Spain fell to an unexpected 2-1 quarter-final defeat to the Netherlands.
Nadal won his 14th Roland Garros crown, 22nd Grand Slam and 92nd and last career title at the 2022 French Open.
The Mallorcan revealed after the tournament he had received pain-killing injections in his foot before matches and described the foot as being “asleep” while on court. He was diagnosed with a rare and chronic foot condition called Mueller-Weiss syndrome in 2005.
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The former world No 1 was plagued by various other injury issues thereafter that restricted his ability to play in the last two-and-half years of his career.
Petkovic revealed tennis legend Boris Becker told her how addictive he had found top-level tennis and suggested that Nadal also experienced this.
“Boris [Becker]… I just saw him for a lot of times now lately, and he said to me, ‘It’s like a drug. Tennis is like a drug.’ He said, ‘Winning titles is a drug, playing on Centre Court is a drug’,” the German told The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast.
“I think with Rafa you could see when it turns into addiction, when it becomes hurtful for your life.
“You could tell that he was starting to neglect his being, like you could see that it was unhealthy, he was injured all the time, you could see it in his face. Rafa is not the most relaxed person in general.”
Petkovic also asserted that Nadal would have been an even better player had he played with the same aggression in matches that he did in practice sessions.
“I will have the hottest of hottest takes here. I think he could have been much better if he had less fear in him,” Petkovic added.
“Have you ever watched him practice? He played in practice 10 times the speed which he played in matches, as he got so tight and everything got short. Sometimes you would get glimpses that Rafa would be able to play even better, which is crazy.”
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