‘An important part of my life is leaving too,’ says emotional Rafael Nadal of his decision to retire for the second time.
It’s been three years since Rafael Nadal’s first retirement announcement, during the same season he announced he was coming out of retirement. A new chapter in the tennis-career narrative has been told.
Having spent the last year in New York City, Nadal returned to Miami in mid-March. With a final on the line between Federer and Novak Djokovic, he has decided it’s time to hang up his racquets forever and, for now, at least, to try and make a career in mixed doubles.
An important part of his life is leaving too, having decided to take advantage of the financial opportunity afforded by a new company, Mavic Sport Management, which he joined as a co-director and chief executive officer earlier this year. Mavic Sport Management, founded in 2014, was founded to provide financial support services to the game’s biggest stars. According to company documents, Nadal will receive no financial compensation from his role with the company other than a $250,000 salary.
One of the benefits of being involved with Mavic Sport Management, as a paid co-director, is exclusive access to the company’s financial information. And, in this case, perhaps most eye-opening: Mavic Sport Management had just recently made the financial disclosure required to the ATP and WTA Tours by the end of May 2017, nearly three months before a player would announce his retirement. And, by comparison, it had taken the WTA over six months to announce the retirement of Andre Agassi, who had played with Pete Sampras, and 17 months to announce the retirement of Andrei Medvedev.
“We had to make a very, very specific financial disclosure to the ATP and the professional tennis tours,” Nadal says. “It was my first time ever, so it was very, very hard for us. We had to have that on May 31. The ATP and WTA Tours were waiting for that,” he adds.
According to a June 3 letter sent to the ATP and WTA Tours by Nadal’s lawyer, Nadal has decided to retire from professional tennis and the WTA Tour due to his “inability to sustain and attain a level of play that could be sustained indefinitely.” The letter continues
