Tennis became ‘offensive’ for Nadal as it ‘became an addiction’, says Petkovic

Rafael Nadal may be one of the best tennis players in history, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t suffered during his career.

When people see the best in an area, they often associate it with ease. Roger Federer made it look like he hasn’t even tried his hand on the tennis court, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had to work hard behind the scenes.

The same can be said about Nadal. Although his style of play on the court was in direct contrast to Federer’s as the Spaniard left everything on the court to perfect every point, they both achieved equal success, winning 20 and 22 Grand Slam titles and this was due to their hard work. when no one was looking.

Unfortunately for Nadal, he didn’t have to work as hard as most of his opponents, and probably even harder, as his career was marked by numerous injuries that prevented him from achieving even greater success.

In particular, The Spanish legend battled a chronic foot injury it continued to bother him. As he got older, it became more difficult for him to control his body and compete at the highest level, which became evident in the later years of his tennis career.

However, as a competitor, Nadal wanted to push through. He wanted to fight for every ball, even when it was clear that he was not capable of it. The best example of this was his 2022 Wimbledon Championships quarterfinal against Taylor Fritz.

Nadal won that match in five sets, but he battled an injury throughout the match, which ultimately forced him to withdraw from his semi-final match against Nick Kyrgios.

A more sensible decision would have been to withdraw in the quarterfinals, as his team advised him, but Nadal simply could not do it. He had to continue playing even if it cost him his health.

Former WTA player Andrea Petkovic knows what it means to work hard and she spoke about her recent interaction with Boris Becker on Renne Stubbs Tennis Podcastexplaining how this German man told her that tennis was “like a drug.”

“Boris (Becker)… I’ve seen him a lot lately and he told me: ‘It’s like a drug. Tennis is like a drug.” He said: “Winning titles is a drug, playing on center court is a drug.”

According to Petkovic, this was evident when it became an “addiction” for Nadal as well, and as a result it became detrimental to his life as well. This was evident in the final years of Nadal’s career, when he really wanted to continue playing but couldn’t.

“I think you could see with Rafa when it becomes an addiction, when it becomes harmful to your life. You could tell he started to neglect his being, as if you could see it was unhealthy, he was traumatized all the time.” it was clear from his face. Rafa is not the calmest person at all.”

Nadal is now retired and enjoying life. He recently appeared at Real Madrid’s Champions League match in Liverpool and also traveled to Manchester where he spent some time with the Manchester City players and their coach Pep Guardiola.