Rafael Nadal has pledged to carry on playing as long as he is enjoying his tennis, despite a first round exit at Roland Garros at the slam he made his own, but strongly hinted he will not be playing at Wimbledon this year.
Nadal said the rigours of switching to grass for the London showpiece, then reverting to clay for the Paris Olympics, would probably be too demanding given his age and recent injury issues.
The 22-time grand slam champion lost in straight sets to No.4 Alexander Zverev on Monday - but showed enough flashes of brilliance to suggest he would have beaten most opponents. Having only recently returned from a near 18-month absence that has encouraged him to keep going - and to target more gold.
Nadal won singles gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and doubles gold at Rio 2016. That this year's tennis tournament will be on his favourite court, where he won 14 French Open singles titles, has further tempted him.
However, that does mean Wimbledon, where he won in 2008 and 2010, is likely to be sacrificed. He has only competed in SW19 once in the last four years - in 2022 when he had to withdraw through injury ahead of his semi-final with Nick Kyrgios.
"It looks difficult, honestly, to make a transition to grass, having the Olympics again on clay," said Nadal. "I'm booked in Wimbledon because I had to, [but] I don't think it's a positive idea right now.
"I need to talk with the team. I need to analyse so many facts. But I don't think it's going to be smart after all the things that happened to my body to make a big transition to a completely different surface and then come back to clay."
Nadal, 38 next week, missed most of 2023 with a hip problem and this year's comeback was hampered by a muscle tear, then a series of minor issues affected his Paris preparation.
"My body has been a jungle for two years. You don't know what to expect. I wake up one day and I find a snake biting me. Another day a tiger," Nadal added.
"I've been fighting with all the things that I went through. But the dynamic is positive the last few weeks. I felt ready. I think tomorrow I'll be ready to play again if I have to. But I will not have to.
"Now, I need to prepare myself, I need to clear my ideas and see what's the new calendar to try to be ready for Olympics. My main goal now is to play the Olympics."
Longer term, sounding much like his old friend and rival Andy Murray who also lost in the first round in Paris, he said he wanted to carry on playing while he was healthy and having fun. And even in defeat on the clay where he had so rarely lost before, he had fun.
"If it's the last time that I played here," Nadal said, "I am at peace with myself."
