‘Doesn’t matter if you win…,’ Rafael Nadal on his hotel, sports ventures and what tennis taught him about investing

While playing international tennis, Rafael Nadal spent most of his life living out of hotels around the world. So, when he finally turned his attention to investing, the hospitality sector felt like a natural choice.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion, who retired from professional tennis in November 2024, reveals that he is ready to take on the next phase of his life; and speaking about how he wants to shape it, Nadal says, “I am not the kind of guy that likes to wake up in the morning and don’t know what to do, and my goal was to keep going.”

“In the same way I built a legacy on the court, now is the moment to build a legacy outside of the court.”

Nadal recently unveiled the fourth property under his Zel Hotels brand in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. Launched in partnership with Meliá Hotels International in 2022, the brand debuted with ZEL Mallorca in 2023 before expanding to Costa Brava in Spain and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

Nadal explained that people has already started spending more on experiences, making hospitality a burgeoning area to invest in. And hence, from day one, the biggest hurdle was building a brand in a space that is so competitive.

Nadal, who won a record 14 French Open titles and Olympic gold twice, said sports taught him “to tolerate the frustration, you learn to work as a team, you learn to accept that sometimes you lose, you need to manage the victories, because it doesn’t matter if you win, you have to play the next day.”

He also said, “It was not easy knowing that my tennis career was about to end, but I was prepared for it, and I was prepared to have the next chapter in my life.”

Why Nadal is investing in hospitality, education, sports

“I think every day you have more and more people with more information that taking care of your body is super important now, so investing in education for kids, investing in well-being, and in sports,” Nadal said.

Long before he entered the hotel business, Rafael Nadal had already built a thriving sports and education venture. In 2016, he launched the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca, which has since expanded into a global network of tennis academies and sports centres across Mexico, Greece, Kuwait, Hong Kong and the Dominican Republic.

In 2025, Nadal sold 44.9% of the Academy to the private investment firm GPF Capital, a transaction worth approximately 94 million euros, around $107 million. The deal left Nadal with a 55.1% stake and majority control.

“This is something that, of course, is a lifetime project for me, very personal, but at the same time, the company has grown over the last couple of years, and we felt that we needed some help to keep growing and to keep expanding,” he said.