Nadal meets Next Gen stars Fonseca, Mensik, Michlesen in Jeddah 🤩

How are you? Hello, how are you doing? All good? Good to see you. Hello, how are you doing? All good? Good to meet you guys. How is everything? Good, good. So far, amazing. Now, even better. I wanted to ask how it feels like to not be on the Tour anymore, you know, after those 20 years, you know, it must be like... Well, I mean, for the moment, I even didn't realize that because it has been a short period of time and plenty of things working. But it's a change, of course, you know, when you are used to do one thing for all your life because it's not only 20 years on the Tour. I mean, I was practicing since I was... I mean, I was practicing like a professional probably since I was seven years old. So it's like a game changer in my life. But I'm okay. I mean, I suffered a lot the last couple of years in terms of injuries. I mean, so I was not able to have that much fun. So that, I mean, it's tough, but at the same time, it makes the transition a little bit easier. And now I have a lot of things to enjoy outside of tennis now with the family too. What part of the life is starting now? Yeah, I mean, it's for everyone is the same. So just have fun now that you have all the career in front. My biggest question is because, I mean, you're a big inspiration in terms of like the way you fight. I watched you growing up and the way you fight is just incredible. And I've had like a poster of you in my room since whenever you won your eighth French Open. I don't know. I don't know how long ago that was, but I just want to know where that came from. Is that kind of internal? Because like, I feel like for me, I've always kind of found it for myself. Were you kind of the same way? I think a lot of big part of it, yes. But another part of it is, I think that the education you receive when you are a kid in terms of values you receive from your family, the way that you practice every day. So I had, I think, a good family around me. I think I had good examples around, more important examples than the words always, in my opinion. My coach that was my uncle since I was, since the beginning. He was strict with me and he pushed me very hard in every practice. I never had the chance to stop, you know, to don't give my 100% and to don't practice with the highest intensity. So in some way, it was tough. But then, of course, when you are used to do one thing, then it's normal. You don't... Yeah, it's easy to keep doing it, huh? Exactly. And you always are working on how I need to find the solution to do that better. You are asking all the time yourself what I am doing bad, so what I need to do better. And that's the way that I work it all, all my life. Rafa, by the way, anyways, I have to practice. Yeah, yeah, so practice. So, pleasure to meet you. Have fun. All the best. All the best for the... By the way, you know what's my dog's name? Rafa. Oh, yeah. From the beginning. So, have fun. All the best. All the best for the next season. I know there's an ingredient, but how you did to have the gana, la gana que tienes siempre, in all your matches, doing all your career, do your best. For me, it's about a personal feeling that if I don't give my best, if I don't try my best, I come back home, I am not calm with myself. You know? At the end, it's the fear to not be satisfied with myself, you know? With my attitude. So, for me, it's about, okay, I can lose, I can play terrible, I can play good. But at the end, what cannot happen is go on court and don't go out the court knowing that I tried. I tried my best. What was in my hands to try the things goes well. For me, that's the key at the end. Have the personal responsibility about give your best, doesn't matter the situation. And sometimes, give your best is a disaster in terms of you are playing so bad, but okay, you try, you fight. I tell you one thing. In my career, I won a lot of tournaments playing very, very bad the days before the competition and even the first round, second round. But if you are mentally there, if you are able to accept the challenge and be humble enough to accept that you are playing terrible, but I need to fight with what I have today, a lot of days, you have the level enough good to win that match. And then the next day, you play a little bit better, you are able to win on the match. And somehow, things can change very quick in our sport and I think in the sport in general. So at the end, it's not throwing weeks, not throwing days of practice, days of competition. Because at the end of the year, always you pay the price for giving your best. You're going to win one to one of these 10 matches or 20 matches that you feel that you are playing so bad, you are losing, nothing to do. But if you're still there, you're going to win that match. Only one time, but that match can change the year because then you are allowed to play the next day and you don't know, maybe it's the week that you win the tournament at the end. For me, it's about being mentally positive and with the right attitude to give your best. It doesn't matter the situation. That's my point of view. And that's what I try to do. I achieve it most of the time. I've got a good one. I played 33 weeks or 34 weeks this year. It was a lot of weeks. How did you find the time to enjoy yourself on the tour? It's a very busy life for going city to city. I found it pretty tough my first year. I just wanted to know what you thought about that. At the beginning, it was difficult. Being away from home, too. For me, it was super difficult at the beginning of my career to have fun and to organize those days in between tournaments. Honestly, for me, that's the toughest thing. Because when you are winning, when you are on the tournament, competing, things happen quick. When you win, it's nice. Win or even keep competing. Of course, when you are there, the days are happening fast and it's not a big deal. Then when you lose and you have to stay for one week, it's something that I learned a lot during the years. Because at the beginning of my career, even sometimes I remember being in the States, for example, in 2005, being in Cincinnati, losing the first round. I came back home for six days. For me, it was a big mistake. For me, it was difficult to have fun on the tournaments. Then when you are older, you start to appreciate, OK, I'm going to practice there, but I'm going to visit that thing. I'm going to organize something that you really want to do. Try to organize well the days in between. For me, that's the key. It's about taking the things in a little bit of a more relaxed way. Because at the beginning of your career, of course, when you lose, you are more worried. I need to practice. OK, yes, of course, but you have time for everything. Today, you guys, you have a big team. Everybody has a big team. So you are not having a lot of relationship between the players. When I arrived to the tour, I was very young. We didn't have social networks. We didn't have Netflix. We had smaller teams than what we have today. We were able to have much more relation between players. That makes things a little bit more happier and more funny. Then, of course, the dynamic on the tour changed a lot. Everyone is just spending time with their team, as I did in the last few years. But the tour was a little bit more funnier when you have more interaction with other players. But at the end, I think, organize your time outside of the in-between weeks. You are in Europe, so I have five days. Let's practice three days. These two days, I want to visit that. But if you organize things, it's a big help. I definitely need to do a better job of that. For me, it's difficult because I need to go back to Brazil. For you, too, you need to go back to the US. Exactly, I'm going back to the States. It's difficult for the Latin Americans. Yeah, so far. So far. For us Europeans, we are the luckier ones. The States isn't bad, though. Yeah, no. But you have a lot of seasons. But even for us, we have two long seasons in three. Australia, then we have the Latin America season, and Indian Wells, Miami. So it's quite a long period of time, too. And at the end, you realize that not always more is better. Yeah, that's what I realized. That's the thing. Because it's important, from my point of view, when you are playing too much, you start feeling like only a worker. Yes, exactly. And the sport cannot be like a normal worker. It's fashion. You lose a little bit of that freshness that you need in every single moment. So of course, when you are younger, you need to play more. And of course, depending on the results, you need to adjust the calendar. It's not about how many tournaments you play, it's about how many matches you play, too. But you need to find a balance, because sometimes playing more, you collapse. Tennis is a very mental sport, and I think it's very demanding in terms of every single... Yeah, the margins are like this. Exactly. You win 6-3, 6-3, or you lose 6-3, 6-3, and it's not a big difference about how you play it. Not at all. So this mental freshness can make a big difference. Yeah, when I was in Europe for three and a half months straight, I was not mentally fresh. So sometimes it's better to stop. Yeah, yeah. Next year, I'm going home, obviously. It's a good experience. Go back, stay two weeks at home. OK, you're going to miss two tournaments. That's fine. If I lose the first round in Madrid, I can go home next year. He got me in Madrid this year. I can lose the first round and go home after. Awesome. Thank you. All the best. That was awesome. Appreciate your time. Have fun. And all the best. Good luck with everything. Thank you.