Golf legend Tiger Woods hopes tennis player Rafael Nadal will return to play and compete for titles in the 2024 season.
“To me, what Nadal did was extraordinary,” Tiger Woods replied to Eurosport on November 29, when asked about the career difficulties of stars with many injuries like him and Nadal.
“Nadal won the Australian Open with a broken foot. He has exceeded all limits.”
According to Woods, Nadal , like older athletes, faces the problem of time. In some sports, such as tennis or soccer, an athlete’s career may be shorter than golf or billiards.
“I don’t want Nadal to hang up his racket,” Woods added. “I never wanted Federer to stop either.
But it happened, it’s hard to change the rules. We all want to see him play, to admire his talent, passion and understand why he plays. He plays this sport”.
Nadal recently announced his return to competition in 2024, after a year of recovery.
The 37-year-old tennis player is cleared to play at the Australian Open, but has not yet decided. Nadal’s main goal is the clay season, where there are two important events for him: Roland Garros and the Paris Olympics.
Like Nadal, Woods suffered many injuries in the final years of his career. He almost lost feeling in his right leg after a serious traffic accident in 2021. The last time Woods competed was at this year’s Masters event, where he made it to two weekends but withdrew due to a recurring injury. .
Woods recently had surgery to treat arthritis in April, and then entered a lengthy period of rehabilitation. “I no longer have pain like before surgery,” said the golfer who owns 15 majors. “The ankle is fine, which means the surgery was successful. But other parts of the body hurt a little more because of the heavy load, like the knee or back. It’s a chain reaction.”
Woods said he would quit golf if he was no longer able to compete for titles. He added: “I like competition. I like that atmosphere, like winning. There will come a time when I understand I can’t win anymore and I will leave.”
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