Rafael Nadal on hotels and life after tennis

Rafael Nadal says he spent most of his tennis profession dwelling out of resorts.

“That is what I did throughout half of my life, and I do know what I like essentially the most,” he informed CNBC. So opening his personal felt pure.

The 22-time Grand Slam winner, who retired from aggressive tennis in November 2024, simply opened his fourth lodge within the Canary Islands in Fuerteventura below his hospitality model Zel Motels, based in 2022 in partnership with Meliá Motels Worldwide.

The model opened its first lodge, ZEL Mallorca, in 2023. Motels in Costa Brava in Spain and Punta Cana within the Dominican Republic adopted.

“I’m not the type of man that likes to get up within the morning and do not know what to do, and my aim was to maintain going,” Nadal informed Tania Bryer for “CNBC Meets,” to be launched later this week.

“In the identical manner I constructed a legacy on the court docket, now’s the second to construct a legacy exterior of the court docket.”

Mallorca-born Nadal added that folks had began spending extra on experiences, making hospitality a burgeoning space to spend money on.

However he stated that constructing a model was “a problem to start with,” because the house is so aggressive.

Nadal, who received a file 14 French Open titles and Olympic gold twice, stated sports activities taught him “to tolerate the frustration, you study to work as a staff, you study to simply accept that generally you lose, it is advisable to handle the victories, as a result of it does not matter in the event you win, you need to play the subsequent day.”

Nadal described how he spent a yr recovering from hip surgical procedure in 2023, not realizing he must retire, which he in the end did.

“It was not simple, however then once I knew that it was the tip for me, it was a change in my life after doing virtually the identical factor all my life, however I used to be ready for it, and I used to be ready to have the subsequent chapter in my life.”

A number of main tennis gamers, together with Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, ended a boycott of a protest over prize cash final week, after talks with the All England Membership, the organizers of Wimbledon.

Wimbledon has elevated its prize cash by 20% this yr to £64.2 million ($85 million), its largest annual enhance ever. Gamers wished the prize fund to be about £71 million, equal to roughly 16% of match income. Extra broadly, main gamers have pushed for Grand Slams to pay gamers 22% of revenues by 2030.

Nadal stated that he noticed each factors of view however urged gamers to know that, whereas they flip up and play, match organizers “want to take a position the entire yr on getting ready that week, or that two weeks.”

“Should you see how a lot the gamers have been getting 15 years in the past, and the quantity of prize cash that they’re getting at this time, you see that the common growing is manner over the common of any job on this world,” he stated.

Nadal added that the gamers want to succeed in a hard and fast cope with the Grand Slams.

“Discover a cope with that, and also you stick with that, and the Grand Slams commit that they’ve to extend the prize cash a share per yr, truthful sufficient for the gamers, truthful sufficient for the match.. signal this deal for 10 years, so now we have 10 years of calm,” he added.

Nadal’s enterprise pursuits span hospitality, schooling, and sports activities, with a lot of his investments managed by his household holding firm, Aspemir.

Earlier than Zel Motels, Nadal opened the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca in 2016 for elite tennis teaching, which has now grown into a world community of tennis academies and sports activities facilities in international locations together with Mexico, Greece, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and the Dominican Republic.

“I believe day by day you may have increasingly individuals with extra data that caring for your physique is tremendous vital now, so investing in schooling for teenagers, investing in well-being, and in sports activities,” Nadal stated.

In 2025, Nadal offered 44.9% of the Academy to the non-public funding agency GPF Capital, a transaction value roughly 94 million euros, round $107 million. The deal left Nadal with a 55.1% stake and majority management.

“That is one thing that, in fact, is a lifetime undertaking for me, very private, however on the similar time, the corporate has grown over the past couple of years, and we felt that we wanted some assist to continue to grow and to maintain increasing,” he stated.