Nadal, who reached the French Open semifinals last week but dropped to Novak Djokovic, has won the title at Wimbledon two, in 2008 and 2010. He also won the Olympic gold medal in singles at the 2008 Beijing Games and in doubles at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
"The purpose is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy, which is to compete at the maximum level and keep fighting for those skilled and personal goals at the maximum level of competition," Nadal said.
The 35-year-old Spaniard said the simple fact there are only two weeks involving Roland Garros and Wimbledon"didn't make it simpler" on his body to recover from"the always demanding" clay-court season.
"Sport prevention of any kind of excess in my own body is an essential factor in this stage of my profession so as to try to keep battling for the maximum degree of competition and names," Nadal wrote on Twitter.
Nadal is a 20-time Grand Slam winner with a record 13 titles in the French Open.
His loss at Roland Garros last Friday was his third in 108 matches in a tournament he won each of the last four decades, such as by beating Djokovic at the 2020 closing.
Nadal sent a"special message" to fans from Britain and Japan in particular.
"The Olympic Games always meant a lot and they were always a priority as a Sports individual, I discovered that the soul that every sports person in the world wishes to reside," he wrote. "I had the chance to live 3 of them and had the honour to be the flag bearer for my country."
Nadal had not played much amid the coronavirus pandemic and had a slow start to his year. He won two names, in Barcelona and in Rome, and also had a 23-4 record up to now this season.