The Spanish legend has announced that he will end his career after the Davis Cup Finals next month but his uncle and former coach Toni Nadal has revealed that the 22-time Grand Slam champion was still ambitious about competing on his favoured clay surface next year.

Toni told Marca: "Rafa would have liked another good season on clay and that means winning or at least performing at a good level.

"He has not retired as he would have liked. I always told him not to complain because life has treated us better than we expected.

"Looking back now, you can say why he put it off, but Rafa had the hope of still giving his best version and when he was not convinced, he retired.

"It’s just that his body doesn’t respond. When he forces his body, it suffers from one part or another. The same thing happened to [Roger] Federer, he tried for two years and left."

Nadal confirmed his retirement last week after being ravaged by injuries over the past two years and Toni explained that he brought his nephew down to earth with his reaction to the announcement.

He said: "We have a family chat and Rafa said on Thursday that in a few hours a video was coming out announcing his retirement.

"In the group we are the five brothers and older nephews. I’m a pretty dry guy and I wrote to him: ‘Congratulations, you’ve had a good career.’ The others went on a bit longer. I say things up front, which makes me less lazy."