The problem with that is, Nadal has spoken more about his love of competition than he has about his love of fishing. And let's face it, athletes often don't realize how much they love professional sport, until its gone and they're told they'll be fishing for he next 60 years. Nadal in particular, with his obsession with competition and its thrill.... If Nadal cannot find a suitable competition replacement for tennis, he will be tempted to return to tennis (and this is especially true if he retires as defending champion of Roland Garros, or finalist/semifinalist). Will competitive poker be enough? Will competitive golf be enough? The same happened to Michael Jordan. Jordan also continually spoke of his love for competition. No athletes have ever been more similar mentally than Jordan/Nadal (they also were both plagued by knee tendinitis for their entire careers, but that's a separate issue). Jordan made a couple of comebacks - retired 1993, comeback 1995, retired 1998, comeback 2001, retired 2003 (in 2003 his final season Jordan averaged 20ppg and 6.1rpg, and was the only Washington player to play all 82 games) and has since spoken regularly of what it would be like to make another comeback.
See its not that Jordan/Nadal love basketball/tennis so much (that would be Federer, he LOVES tennis specifically), its rather that they love high-level competition - that would explain why Nadal relished the challenge of his main rival Djokovic so much for 7 months in 2011, and reversed the trend so emphatically in 2012 and 2013. Nadal himself said recently that "sure I love tennis, but I love the thrill of competition a lot more". While Federer will be content to travel the world playing tennis exhibitions matches after retiring from the ATP, Nadal will be looking for another high-level competition (an attempt at professional golf has already been speculated by one of Nadal's family members, and while the humble Nadal himself would never expect to be a golf pro, you can count on him trying to get the most out of his golf - I remember him once saying that he already plays more golf than tennis). If Nadal fails to replace the thrilling competition of tennis adequately, he'll probably make a tennis comeback. Fishing for the next 60 years? Looks good at first....
