Rafael Nadal has admitted that in the later years of his remarkable career, he battled with mental health struggles as a professional tennis player.
Having fought through several injuries during his career, the 22-time Grand Slam champion announced his retirement at the Davis Cup Finals in November. However, Nadal found it much harder to handle the psychological stress of professional sport than the physical injuries.
The legendary player admitted: “I went through a very difficult moment mentally a few years ago… Physical pain I was very used to, but there were times on the court when I had trouble controlling my breathing, and I couldn’t play at the highest level… I don’t have trouble saying it now. After all, we are human beings, not superheroes.”
He added: “The person you see at centre court with a trophy is a person. Exhausted, relieved, happy, thankful – but just a person… Thankfully, I didn’t get to the point of not being able to control things like anxiety, but there are moments with every player when it is difficult to control your mind. When that happens it is difficult to have total control of your game.”
Nadal also thought of having a “complete break” from tennis. He said: “There were moments with every player when it is difficult to have total control of your game…. There were months when I thought about taking a complete break from tennis to cleanse my mind. In the end, I worked on it every day to get better.”
Despite these difficulties, the athlete shared that he conquered his problems by “always moving forward and I slowly became myself again”.
“The thing that I’m most proud of is that I may have struggled, but I never quit. I always gave the maximum,” Nadal declared.
Truly, Nadal’s athletic career has provided tennis fans with some unforgettable moments and some amazing rivalries with players like Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer over the years.
Source: Eurosport