me too - for me Nadal has always been a legend to me.
YOu are right he would not give up that easily - but that too is true -sometime the injuries are fatal and they kick off the players off their career.
It's not just about giving up, you have to see how Federer is still trying to be able to play and win the GS especially Wimbledon because it is his favorite surface but that didn't happen because an injury forced him to retire because his body was no longer able to compete and maybe Nadal would be the same but retiring with such great achievement is something to be proud of.
But I guess his injury is not that worst compare to Federer or to Andy Murray, so with proper exercise, he could rehabilitate his body to still compete at least one GS in this calendar year and chase another title and get one ahead of Djokovic.
So we will see, I doubt that he will retire though, of course his name is in the discussion of the GOAT.
But so far, Djokovic is still far from retiring so he can still more GS from Nadal, but for sure Rafa has a target for this year's slam.
His injury is not so serious. But what I think is it is already hard for him to actually perform at the top level considering his age. He is already having to play against a lot of younger and agile players. It is going to be harder for him if he has to play with even a little bit of injury on top of that.
Djokovic is not retiring soon. But we have to remember that he is also 35 years old. Sometimes it is actually hard to believe that Rafael Nadal is 36 years old and Novak Djokovic is 35.
Yes I agree with that also, it is hard to believe Djokovic is 35 and still looking very strong
and injury free. I would argue if COVID hadnt have happened he would be ahead in GS
titles now, but yea thats only speculation.
Anyway it will be hard to bet against him when he is playing anyone other than Alcaraz?
Provided Alcaraz can return strong and injury free.
In fact, it is incredible that the dominance of the "big three" in men's tennis has lasted so long and that together they have won as many as 64 GS. Something like this will probably never happen again in the history of tennis or any other sport, that three of the best athletes compete at the same time, against each other.
I had much higher expectations from Medvedev, Zverev, Tsitsipas, Thiem and other young hopefuls, but even though some of them managed to win some GS, they still could not break the dominance of the big three.
Whether Alcaraz can do that this year and end their dominance, if fit and healthy, remains to be seen.