Rafael Nadal interview with Tania Bryer for CNBC Meets.
CNBC
Rafael Nadal says he spent most of his tennis profession dwelling out of motels.
“That is what I did throughout half of my life, and I do know what I like probably the most,” he instructed 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 beneath his hospitality model Zel Resorts, based in 2022 in partnership with Meliá Resorts Worldwide.
The model opened its first lodge, ZEL Mallorca, in 2023. Resorts in Costa Brava in Spain and Punta Cana within the Dominican Republic adopted.
“I’m not the sort of man that likes to get up within the morning and do not know what to do, and my objective was to maintain going,” Nadal instructed Tania Bryer for “CNBC Meets,” to be launched later this week.
“In the identical means I constructed a legacy on the court docket, now’s the second to construct a legacy exterior of the court docket.”
“In the identical means I constructed a legacy on the court docket, now’s the second to construct a legacy exterior of the court docket,”
Rafael Nadal
Former tennis champion.
Mallorca-born Nadal added that individuals had began spending extra on experiences, making hospitality a burgeoning space to spend money on.
However he mentioned that constructing a model was “a problem at first,” because the house is so aggressive.
How sports activities ready Nadal for enterprise
Nadal, who gained a document 14 French Open titles and Olympic gold twice, mentioned sports activities taught him “to tolerate the frustration, you be taught to work as a crew, you be taught to just accept that typically you lose, you’ll want to handle the victories, as a result of it does not matter when you win, you must play the subsequent day.”
Nadal described how he spent a yr recovering from hip surgical procedure in 2023, not understanding he must retire, which he in the end did.
“It was not straightforward, however then once I knew that it was the tip for me, it was a change in my life after doing nearly 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.”
The tennis prize cash dispute
BEIJING – AUGUST 17: Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates successful the gold medal towards Fernando Gonzalez of Chile throughout the males’s singles gold medal tennis match held on the Olympic Inexperienced Tennis Middle throughout Day 9 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Video games on August 17, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Picture by Clive Brunskill/Getty Photographs)
Clive Brunskill | Getty Photographs Sport | Getty Photographs
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 mentioned that he noticed each factors of view however urged gamers to grasp 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.”
“For those who see how a lot the gamers had been getting 15 years in the past, and the quantity of prize cash that they’re getting in the present day, you see that the common growing is means over the common of any job on this world,” he mentioned.
Nadal added that the gamers want to achieve 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 we now have 10 years of calm,” he added.
Why Nadal is investing in hospitality, schooling, sports activities
Nadal’s enterprise pursuits span hospitality, schooling, and sports activities, with lots of his investments managed by way of his household holding firm, Aspemir.
Earlier than Zel Resorts, Nadal opened the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca in 2016 for elite tennis teaching, which has now grown into a global community of tennis academies and sports activities facilities in nations together with Mexico, Greece, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and the Dominican Republic.
“I believe on daily basis you could have an increasing number of folks with extra info that taking good care of your physique is tremendous essential now, so investing in schooling for teenagers, investing in well-being, and in sports activities,” Nadal mentioned.
In 2025, Nadal bought 44.9% of the Academy to the personal 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 venture for me, very private, however on the similar time, the corporate has grown over the past couple of years, and we felt that we would have liked some assist to continue to grow and to maintain increasing,” he mentioned.
