In an interview with Tennis Majors, Tomas Berdych reflected on the difficulty of leaving his sport behind for good, revealing his sadness over Rafael Nadal's Farewell.
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The new Czech Davis Cup captain recalled the emotions he felt when he retired.
"Retiring is difficult. We saw how emotional Roger, Rafa and even Andy were when they retired. The main reason why I retired was my health: my back and my whole body were giving me no peace. For a year, a year and a half almost, I tried pretty much everything, but I couldn't find a way to get what I needed to be competitive enough. I probably could have stayed on Tour for another year or two by reducing the tournaments to ten a year.
But my ranking would have gone down and I would have reached a position I didn't want to be in. So, at that moment, I felt it was time to end my career. It was probably the best decision I could have made at that moment because, with all the COVID, I couldn't imagine myself on the court without seeing a spectator in the stands. So I did exactly what had to be done. And I'm great. I've never regretted it for a second," he said.
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Berdych continued on to discuss the Big 3, analyzing: "Of course, it's sad to see guys who have to stop their careers, but you know it's going to happen and it's impossible for them to play forever. But if you look at their successes, I totally understand why they tried to push as hard as they could, because you never know what could happen: maybe Roger would add another slam, or Rafa another, and it would be history, and that's why Novak is still playing. If he feels good and if he can win another slam, it's the greatest thing that can happen. And when you've given everything for the last, I don't know, 20 or 25 years, why would you stop when you feel like you're still competitive? I didn't feel like I was competitive enough."
The former Czech tennis player concluded his analysis by explaining: "My general approach to tennis has been to get the most out of myself. If that meant being in the top 100, that would be great. Top 50? Perfect. Whatever it is. To achieve that, you need your team and all the support, but also your opponents. Opponents make you a better player. So I think I was very, very lucky in many ways: first of all, I could play against all of them and be part of this historic era - it was something very special and unique - and then they managed to get the most out of me."
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2024 was the year of retirements, with two legends like Andy Murray and Nadal, as well as Dominic Thiem, who decided to say goodbye to playing tennis forever. The same fate befell Berdych in 2019, the former Czech tennis player who was able to reach the fourth position in the ranking and be the protagonist of some epic battles with the champions of this sport.
