Rafael Nadal acknowledged that the defeat suffered against Serbian Novak Djokovic was "hard to accept due to the manner" and refused to speak about definitive decisions regarding his career, which he will start considering after the Paris Olympics.

"When I finish here, I will make the decisions I need to make based, first and foremost, on the desire I have and the sensations I feel. Although it may not make much sense to many, I have been suffering for many years, I had a hip operation, I spent a long time recovering. I am feeling better physically; obviously, if I feel that I am not competitive and I don't have the capacity to be competitive, I will decide to retire. But I have played very little. The truth is that I have played very few tournaments since I had the hip surgery; a significant hip operation, it's not easy to recover because it’s been a little over a year since the surgery," Nadal explained.

"I try to do what I can to enjoy and to give myself the option to be competitive. If after this I don't have any more desire to play, I will let you know, but let me take it day by day and choose," added the winner of twenty-two Grand Slam titles.

"The resolutions I need to make or learn from this and the decisions I need to make will be done after this. I am in competition, I have the doubles left, and well, it’s not the time to get down," said Rafael Nadal, a fourteen-time winner at Roland Garros.

Nadal lamented that he is asked about retirement every day, which prevents him from focusing on competition and progressing. "I can't be thinking about retirement all day. But I come here, you ask me the same thing every day, and in the end, you know what happens, it becomes very difficult to regain an optimal level if I am thinking every day about whether I retire or not; so I try to live day by day."

"I come from two very difficult years, with many physical problems. I have not been able to have continuity, and I have given myself extra time to see if I could recover many things; but this extra time I am giving myself cannot be lived every day thinking if it is the last or not, because it is impossible; you have a bug in your ear that doesn't let you develop what you need to develop to give yourself a real option; therefore, it is also difficult for me to sometimes forget about that because every day I come here, I have to answer this question," he added.

Regarding the defeat to Djokovic, which leaves him out of the singles draw of the Olympic Games, Nadal acknowledged the superiority of the Serbian at the moment.

"He was a much better player, and you have to accept it. For an hour, it was hard to digest everything that was happening, but I did it," he said. "I tried to have the right attitude and mentality to accept it; I knew there was a possibility that it would be like this, and I did it, right? But I was not able to play at the level I needed to create problems for him. He also hardly gave me anything. He was inspired for a long time, and I did not have the quality of continuous play to create problems for him," he admitted.

"It's not the same situation as 15 years ago, and you are not going to create problems for one of the best players in history like that, right? From there, the analysis is that one player was not at a good level, and the other was. The reaction I had in the second set was not complete," Nadal regretted.

"The reaction was not complete. I managed to recover to the point of giving myself a chance and having a chance in that game to go 5-4 up, but I was not able to convert it; I think at this level, small differences make a big difference in the overall game," explained the Balearic tennis player, who described the defeat as hard.

"It was a hard defeat to accept due to the manner. But also, on the other hand, it is easy to accept because I was not at the level. From there, having the right mentality, and I will not fail in that for sure, for the doubles tomorrow," Nadal indicated.

"My thigh is fine, there is no physical problem. It was very small, and it's not such a direct muscle. So, it allowed me to play, and it was not a problem at all. I am excited to play doubles tomorrow and do well," Nadal concluded.