Murray confesses why Nadal changed in his career

Fernando Murciego - 7 Oct 2026 | 08:23
ATP Rafael Nadal Andy Murray Rafa Nadal Academy

The Briton recounts, based on a couple of anecdotes, how the figure of the Balearic ended up being crucial to taking a step forward in his career as a player. A step forward in every sense.

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Murray confesses why Nadal changed in his career. Source: Getty

Last weekend, the first Rafa Nadal Academy Slam was held in Manacor, an event where Rafael Nadal surrounded himself with good friends from the circuit. One of them was Andy Murray, who took a somewhat more prominent role within the lineup.

And I’m not just talking about greatness or achievements, as we would have to make comparisons, which is not the focus right now. Beyond the fact that the Scot was the captain of the opposing team, his story has always been intertwined with Rafa's. They are from the same generation, as we all know, but there are other details that we do not know. For example, how the figure of the Spaniard was at times decisive for Murray to evolve on the court. And how did he do it? Simply by observing him.

“I remember him since we were kids,” the Brit recalled during the tenth anniversary of the Rafa Nadal Academy, but the truly interesting part came when he explained what he saw in that Mallorcan kid who was starting to attract attention. “The first time I saw him play in tournaments, he was different from the others.” Andy was not yet talking about Nadal, the champion of 22 Grand Slams or the man who would go on to conquer Roland Garros fourteen times. He was talking about a teenager whose attitude already seemed to belong to another category.

Murray especially noticed his concentration, his maturity, and that particular way of competing that would become one of the great hallmarks of the Spaniard. That admiration would not remain just an anecdote; in fact, it had direct consequences in his own life.

The day Murray understood what he needed to change

“It was the reason I came to train in Spain,” confessed Murray. At 15, the Scot moved to Barcelona to train for two years. And it all started with a conversation with Nadal. Murray asked him what a normal training week looked like for him, and the answer left him pondering. Rafa explained that he went to school in the morning and then trained for two to three hours in the afternoon, plus had the opportunity to work with Carlos Moyà, then the number one in the world.

When Nadal returned the question, Murray replied that he trained for one hour, three times a week, alongside his mother. The comparison was enough. “That’s when I understood I had to change something.” It seems like a simple phrase, but it may hide one of the most important decisions in the career of a player who would go on to become the number one in the world and a three-time Grand Slam winner.

Fate later wanted those two teenagers to become rivals for more than a decade. They faced each other 24 times on the professional circuit, with 17 victories for Nadal and 7 for Murray. They shared the golden era of the Big4, contested finals, semifinals, and highly tense matches, but they never faced each other in a Grand Slam final. The last competitive chapter of that rivalry came in Madrid 2016, with victory for the Brit.

Now, both retired, what remains is something much more valuable than that balance of encounters: admiration. Murray returned to the Rafa Nadal Academy these days to celebrate its tenth anniversary and ended up being part of a scene that seemed impossible a few years ago. Nadal and Andy, once again with a racket in hand, but this time without rankings, without pressure, and with nothing to prove. Just pure fun.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Murray confiesa por qué la figura de Nadal cambió su carrera