It’s undeniable that Rafael Nadal enjoyed one of the greatest tennis careers in the history of the sport. A total of 22 grand slams, including a record 14 French Open titles and 209 weeks as world No. 1, all while playing in arguably the most competitive era of men’s tennis.
But while his achievements have been well documented, what is lesser known is how close it came to never happening at all, and how an injury sustained at the start of his career almost derailed everything he had worked towards.
Rewind to 2005 and Nadal was starting to make a name for himself. The young Spaniard claimed his first grand slam title at Roland Garros and finished that season as the world No. 2.
But while many in the tennis world were projecting his future success after a breakthrough year on the tour, Nadal was left facing the real possibility of never playing again.
At the latter end of 2005, Nadal felt a crunch in his foot during a match. After tests, he was later diagnosed with Mueller–Weiss syndrome, a rare degenerative condition that affects bones in the foot.
It led to a period when it was unclear whether the 19-year-old phenom could continue his dream of becoming a professional tennis player, let alone become one of the greatest to ever do it.
“Probably that was the toughest part in my tennis career,” Nadal said in an extensive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in Madrid. “Because that was just the beginning.
“In some ways, you are projecting your future of being a professional tennis player, thinking that you’re gonna have at least seven, eight, 10 years of being on the professional tour, that’s why you have been practicing almost all your life.
“And then in one second, it looks like maybe you will not be able to keep doing what you are doing.”
Nadal reflects extensively on that difficult time in a new four-part docuseries on Netflix, which provides previously unseen insight into the struggles behind his extraordinary success and famous grit.
Injuries and Nadal’s ability to recover from them is one of the prevailing narratives in the documentary, starting with that major setback at the start of his career.
“At 19 years old, you feel everything in a different way. You are very young,” he added. “But I was very lucky to have very good people next to me.
“Of course, I always held the hope that things were gonna move forward and I would be able to keep playing, but the news for a couple of months hadn’t been positive.”
Mental health challenges
Ultimately, though, Nadal and his medical team found a solution that worked, a new cutting-edge insole that moved his foot almost 0.276 inches (7 mm) inside his sneaker. Nike then went away and created a new shoe, custom-designed just for his foot.
While it was a solution that worked, it certainly wasn’t the end of his injury problems. The foot issue resurfaced multiple times, notably in the seasons leading up to his retirement in 2024.
There were also several wrist and knee problems which contributed to the Spaniard missing a total of 18 grand slams during his career – a number which makes his 22 major titles look even more impressive.
But while there was undoubted success through adversity – he fought through pain and found solutions to remain competitive – Nadal wasn’t as bulletproof as he seemed from the outside.
In his interview with CNN, the 39-year-old spoke about how he struggled with the mental pressure and anxiety of battling injuries and playing elite sport. It got to a point where he couldn’t leave the house without having a bottle of water to hold in his hand.
“Probably because I went through a lot of injuries, a lot of pressure, and arrived in a moment where, in some way, you are not able to handle all of this – even if in my mind I was able to handle all of this,” he said.
“But it arrived at a point where your mind fails, and that’s what happened. I always thought that I needed to fix things for myself, in terms of mental strength. But when I cannot go out on the street without a bottle of water in my hand, that’s a big thing. So I needed to find help and that’s what I did.”
Nadal initially saw a psychologist, but didn’t feel much benefit. He then visited a psychiatrist around 2015, with his performances on the court suffering.
“After that, I started with some medication for a while and I was able to start feeling improvements after a couple of months. That was for around a year and then, of course, I recovered,” he added.
Alcaraz and Ibiza
Nadal was and is not alone in feeling the weight of pressure in professional tennis. The grueling schedule sees players traveling away from home for around 11 months every year, with tournaments coming thick and fast.
It naturally leads to burnout both mentally and physically, with managing injuries and workload now a vital aspect of the tour.
Carlos Alcaraz is said to be the heir to Nadal’s thrown, with the 23-year-old cementing himself as a dominant force in the game, alongside rival Jannik Sinner. As the pair take the sport to yet another new level, Alcaraz, like Nadal, has struggled with injuries.
The seven-time grand slam winner has withdrawn from both the French Open and Wimbledon this year as he recovers from a wrist injury, a problem Nadal says every athlete will face in their career.
But Nadal was quick to defend Alcaraz’s life away from the court after the young Spaniard had been open about the need he has for mid-season breaks, notably trips to Ibiza that he uses to blow off steam and reset his mind.
And while that admission raised a few eyebrows in the sport, it’s something Nadal knows about all too well.
“I went to Ibiza every single year with my friends,” Nadal said. “Everyone needs to find their own space.
“My life was much more than tennis, but I didn’t want to project that to the world. I didn’t find it interesting for the world that I was going to Ibiza. (Alcaraz) decided to make that public. I respect that. It seems like it’s working very well for him too.”
