Flashback: Rafael Nadal was at peace with retirement even in 2019 '60 Minutes' interview

Five years ago, Rafael Nadal was nowhere near retirement, but the then-20-time Grand Slam champion was already at peace with when that day would eventually come, he told longtime tennis journalist Jon Wertheim on 60 Minutes.

With the recent announcement by Nadal that next month's Davis Cup Finals would be the last professional tournament of his career, the decorated news program unearthed a 2019 interview between Nadal and Wertheim where the latter visited Mallorca to speak with Nadal about his career. And in the interview, Nadal uttered a phrase that returned to his lips in the social media video he posted last week in which he announced his impending retirement.

"I'm aware that everything has an end," Nadal said then, a message he repeated last week. "And when the end arrives, I'll be ready for it. I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about retiring at the end of my career.

"I just want to be happy and enjoy playing as much as possible, and when I retire, fortunately, there are many things in my life that will make me happy."

Read more: For complete coverage of Rafael Nadal's Hall of Fame tennis career, visit tennis.com/rafa

In December of 2019, Nadal also touched on other topics that have been paramount in his tennis career: the art of suffering and sacrifice, for one, and his rivalry with Roger Federer. But, just as it was in countless interviews over more than two decades, Nadal also delivered his answered with thoughtful perspective.

"We … know that this is a game," Nadal said. "And there are many other things in life that are more important than a game, than a match. And of course, there have been some moments with more tension. But like everything else in life, both [Roger] and myself, we had very clearly in our minds that the human relations are more important than the tennis rivalry."

Read more: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic pay tribute to retiring Nadal: “Your legacy will live forever”

And through it all, Nadal said, and all the ups and downs, the Spaniard said he wouldn't have changed a thing.

"I never felt that what I was doing was a sacrifice," Nadal told Wertheim through a Spanish interpreter. "I trained, yes. I have worked very hard, at the maximum, yes. But I have enjoyed every single thing.

"For me, a sacrifice means that you are doing the things that you don't like doing. But I have done all of the things I enjoy doing."