Rafa, the four-part Netflix series directed by Zach Heinzerling, chronicles Rafael Nadal’s difficult decision to retire from tennis at the end of the 2024 season, after an astounding 22 Grand Slam wins — and also several injuries and a painful foot condition that plagued him throughout his career.
The doc weaves together archival footage of Nadal’s intense training sessions with his coach, Uncle Toni; interviews with rivals Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and more; and glimpses of his home life to show what has motivated the former No. 1 pro to compete for more than two decades, as well as the mental and physical toll it has taken.
“I enjoyed doing what I was doing,” Nadal tells THR. “Of course, I paid the price of suffering. But I always put everything on the balance, and that’s why I was always able to keep going. I said, ‘OK, I’m having pain every day, but on the other hand, I have been enjoying all these amazing and unforgettable moments of my life.”
“I was doing it for the people next to me, team, family, fans. It’s not [just] a way to talk. That’s true. That’s the way that I approached that,” he added.
Nadal was not a producer on the doc, which was made by Skydance Sports, and also meant the tennis star had to give over some degree of control. Before this, Nadal had long been resistant to doing a documentary, because he was worried about showing a more personal side of his life and having cameras around his family and team. Skydance head David Ellison convinced him to do this project with the idea that this was, at the very least, the last stage of Nadal’s career.
Going into the 2024 season, Heinzerling was not entirely sure of the narrative for the doc, as Nadal was returning to tennis after a hip surgery. “I was in that phase of trying to come back, but without the security that the [comeback] is going to go well,” Nadal says. Within days of filming, he reinjured his hip, but continued to press on, giving Heinzerling a new narrative.
“Rafa usually wins by outlasting his opponents. That’s what makes him so great. So, if he is so determined and the person who never quits, what’s actually going to make him quit? That became the new story, as opposed to the last comeback or Rafa’s last dance,” Heinzerling says.
Heinzerling adopted a fly-on-the-wall position throughout the tennis eason, largely staying silent as he captured Nadal’s practices and his daily routines. He returned for look-back interviews with Nadal and others after the tennis pro made the difficult decision to announce his retirement, a moment that Heinzerling also captures.
While filming, Heinzerling also bore witness to many sensitive moments, including a car ride in which Nadal learns he has reinjured his hip and softly says, “I’m destroyed. I’m destroyed.”
The process required a delicate “dance” between filmmaker and subject, in which Heinzerling tried to capture what was needed without being intrusive.
“It’s moments like those that actually build a relationship, and you feel even more of an obligation to protect that vulnerability because you feel more connected to that person and you want to shepherd their image and legacy in as delicate a way as you can,” Heinzerling says.
To help build that picture, Heinzerling and team got on court with Nadal, with camera operators dodging tennis balls and sliding and capturing moments of Nadal with his young son and wife at home. On the other side of it, the doc also shows a particularly shocking image of the prominent bump on Nadal’s foot as a result of years playing with a degenerative bone disease and delves into the anxiety that he faced throughout his career. Most of the interviews are done in Spanish, to allow Nadal, team and family to better express themselves.
Even now, it’s tough for Nadal to watch a film about himself.
“It’s very difficult to look at yourself and sit on the sofa and just enjoy the documentary,” he says. “You know, you are analyzing things all the time.” But he said that he’s relied on positive reviews from friends and family to get a sense of how others view it.
It wasn’t easy to have Heinzerling document his tough journey through the season, and Nadal noted there were some moments he asked not to film so as not to skew the overall picture: “I missed plenty of Grand Slams because of injuries, but on the other hand, I was able to have very successful and long career. So I don’t want to only look like ‘OK, I am injured, injured, injured.’”
But ultimately, he says he trusted him to tell his story.
“I always felt lucky, even though I went through a lot of injuries. I always felt I am a privileged guy for living the life that I was living,” says Nadal. “I was living from a work that I love a lot. So I never took it like work. Tennis for me was never a job.”
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
