Courier surprised with Nadal's career longevity: "I was among the leaders of people who didn’t think he’d play out of his 20s"

Rafael Nadal was not projected to have a lengthy career considering how many physical issues he had early on and it certainly surprised Jim Courier.

The former American player admitted in a segment on the Tennis Channel that he was one of those that thought Nadal would not be playing past his 20s let alone his 30s. All of that came as a huge surprise to him but he's glad about it:

"We’ve been lucky to have Rafa as long as we’ve had him and I hope we’ll have him for a much longer time, but my feeling generally is just gratitude that he’s been able to endure, because his game is so physical."

And he added:

"And I was among the leaders of people who didn’t think he’d play out of his 20s because of the physicality, and I’m so pleased that we’ve been able to witness his greatness for so long."

Nadal showed his best tennis yesterday when he easily defeated Casper Ruud in straight sets to end the season with a win.