Noted coach Patrick Mouratoglou believes that Rafael Nadal‘s decision to skip Wimbledon is confirmation that he’ll play in 2025 as well.
The Spaniard isn’t sure whether he will retire at the end of the 2024 season, as he wasn’t particularly pleased with how things went in weeks before the Roland Garros. An early exit from Roland Garros proved that he’s miles away from where he wants to be, and it seems unlikely that he’ll ever get there.
Even so, he wouldn’t completely rule out playing beyond this year because it largely depends on how his body holds up. Despite losing in the first round of the French Open, the Spaniard sounded more positive but didn’t want to commit to any decision.
Still, noted coach Mouratoglou thinks Nadal will keep playing beyond 2024 and that his withdrawal from Wimbledon confirms that.
“The fact that he decides not to go to Wimbledon is also a strong sign that he wants to win the Olympics and that he thinks he can and that it is not his farewell year, going to every tournament to say goodbye. Otherwise, he would go to Wimbledon. No, he wants to win the Olympics so he’s going to prepare on clay.”
It’s an interesting perspective from Mouratoglou that has some merit. Nadal would likely want to play at Wimbledon one last time, but this year, it didn’t make much sense to compete at SW19 with the Olympics played on clay shortly after.
However, whether he will really play in 2025 remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Nadal’s focus in 2024 will be fully on preparing well for the Olympics.
“He’s going to probably play one or two ATP 250s on clay, most probably, to play some more matches. I think he will do well, first because he will have much more practice in terms of number of weeks, he will have some more competition and great conditions.”
