MANACOR — To hear that grunt once again. To see that raised eyebrow once again. To hear a “Vamos Rafa” from the stands once again. To feel how the racket strings launch a forehand once again. To see Rafael Nadal playing on a tennis court once again. And to see him smile. And laugh. And enjoy himself. And win.
Nostalgia and happiness flooded the center court at the Rafa Nadal Academy this Saturday to watch the 22-time Grand Slam champion play his first exhibition tournament since hanging up his racket two years ago.
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The academy is celebrating its 10th anniversary these days, and Nadal organized a doubles tournament with major tennis legends—such as Andy Murray, Carlos Moyà, David Ferrer, Marat Safin, Richard Gasquet, Dominic Thiem, and Fabio Fognini—to celebrate that his great life project, his enduring legacy, is in enviable health. “This is like the Disneyland of tennis,” Moyà said in the morning.
On the complex’s courts, some of the stars of the future are training today. But this Saturday, the spotlight belonged to the past. As hard as it still sounds to say, Nadal, Murray, and company can no longer be talked about in the present tense. Although, for a couple of hours, that didn’t matter in Manacor. The players had a blast, like kids at “Disneyland,” and the fans enjoyed seeing Nadal back in kit once more.
It hasn’t been an easy two years for Nadal since his retirement in November 2024. He went a long time without touching a racket, and it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that he returned to what was once his natural habitat.
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“Holding a racket will always be fun for me. I’m not closing the door on playing again for fun; I think that will happen. The only thing is that it has to be a slow process. A step-by-step process, day by day, little by little. And there’s also the fact that I ended my career with many physical problems, so the racket also reminds me of all the pain I’ve had throughout a good part of my career,” the former world No. 1 had reflected a few hours before the tournament.
Nadal also admitted that he is burying the competitor within him, although later, on court, when the exhibition went to the decisive tie-break, he looked noticeably tense. He didn’t want to lose. “In the end, we all got fired up and wanted to win,” said Moyà, who teamed up with his compatriot to score the match point for Team Nadal, which was also made up of Ferrer and Gasquet.
In the end, Team Nadal took the victory on a day that followed the exact script expected: laughs in the locker room, old rivals reunited, and the gift of seeing the 14-time Roland Garros champion back on court one more time.
