"I can be very happy without playing tennis" - Rafael Nadal speaks on life after eventual retirement

However, the Spaniard remains motivated to win more trophies and improve his already legendary resume.

After his recent exhibition match against Roger Federer in South Africa, the reigning Roland Garros champion gave some insight into his state of mind regarding life after tennis.

“I think I have a lot of things in this life that make me happy away from tennis". Nadal said. "Of course tennis is an important part of my life but I think I can be very happy without playing tennis. That gives me the calm that when I stop playing tennis, I will have plenty of things to do and plenty of things that are going to make me happy."

The 33-year old went on to elaborate on the mindset that enabled him achieve such great success in the sport.

"I don’t consider that I had to sacrifice a lot of things to become a tennis player because I enjoyed always this process." Nadal revealed. "You’re in a permanent state of learning. You need to be open and with the eyes and mind very open to see what’s going on around you and take the good things, the things you like and forget about the other things you don’t like.

It’s important for me to watch around and copy the things you like and put away the things you don’t. That’s my feeling. Every day, you need to be ready to go, look around and learn something".

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