{"id":656466,"date":"2026-05-21T13:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/656466\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:13:09","slug":"rafael-nadal-says-he-feared-choking-on-my-own-saliva-during-challenging-2015-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/656466\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Nadal says he feared \u2018choking on my own saliva\u2019 during challenging 2015 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal<\/a> went through a yearlong period in 2015 when he dealt with anxiety and control issues so consuming, he said, that he had to go for walks with a water bottle for fear of choking on his own saliva.<\/p>\n

The 22-time Grand Slam champion talked about seeking treatment from a psychiatrist in an interview<\/a> with Spanish outlet Marca, ahead of the Madrid premiere of his Netflix documentary series, \u201cRafa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a certain point, it\u2019s one thing to not be able to control my emotions or the situation on the tennis court, and another to have to go for walks with a water bottle when I\u2019m off the court because otherwise I choke on my own saliva,\u201d Nadal, 39, said in Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I said, well, I have a problem, I need to see a professional. I visited a psychologist, and she explained things I already knew. She was completely rational.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadal\u2019s blunt honesty mirrors the candid \u2014 and at times intense \u2014 tone of the documentary, which is released May 29.<\/p>\n

The four-episode series details the extreme physical suffering Nadal endured during his career, stemming from the chronic foot issue that came to partially define his legacy. The Spaniard also discussed the lesser-known mental and emotional turmoil he experienced while he was dominating on the tennis court.<\/p>\n

Nadal told Marca he was well aware how revealing the documentary was going to be during filming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was aware of that, because otherwise, what\u2019s the point? If you\u2019re going to tell a story that isn\u2019t true, my story has already been told,\u201d Nadal said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating a story about success, about what my career has been like, I don\u2019t think it would make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadal detailed his approach to managing the mental side of the sport in an essay immediately following his retirement in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went through a very difficult moment, mentally, a few years ago,\u201d he wrote in The Players\u2019 Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysical pain I was very used to, but there were times on the court when I had trouble controlling my breathing, and I couldn\u2019t play at the highest level. I don\u2019t have trouble saying it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is the latest tennis star to turn their career \u2014 or part of it \u2014 into a documentary, as the sport\u2019s most famous players become increasingly invested in being masters of their own media. Nadal follows the likes of Naomi Osaka, Carlos Alcaraz, Roger Federer and Serena Williams in documenting his career and its end, but he is not listed as a producer on the series.<\/p>\n

The release also comes in the shadow of Netflix\u2019s \u201cBreak Point<\/a>,\u201d which followed active tennis players in the behind-the-scenes manner made popular on the platform by the F1 series \u201cDrive to Survive,\u201d but did not achieve the same success and lasted only two seasons, the last of which aired in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should we work with them when we can just make our own movie?\u201d One top player\u2019s agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said during an interview in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rafael Nadal went through a yearlong period in 2015 when he dealt with anxiety and control issues so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[690,99,1794,428],"class_list":["post-656466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-culture","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}