"I'm old enough to take my own decisions": Nadal again declines family involvement at Australian Open after Wimbledon incident with father previously

Rafael Nadal refused to retire once again just like at Wimbledon last year despite getting urges from family members to do so again.

Nadal famously refused to retire at Wimbledon despite the insistence of his father and sister who urged him to do so. He won that match against Fritz but lost this one as he simply could not move well enough to get to the ball in order to hit it back. Once again he was urged to retire but opted against it as he felt that he shouldn't as a defending champion.

Asked about it, Nadal said:

"I didn't ask them. I am old enough to take my own decisions. So I didn't want to retire, to be defending champion here. No, I didn't want to leave the court with a retirement. Better like this at the end. I lost. Nothing to say. Congratulate the opponent."

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He added:

"That's the sport at the same time. Just try your best till the end. Doesn't matter the chances that you have. That's the philosophy of the sport. That's the essence of the sport by itself. I tried to follow that during all my tennis career, and I tried of course to not increase the damage, because I didn't know what's going on."

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