Rafael Nadal retires from tennis after Davis Cup Finals

Rafael Nadal has confirmed that he will retire from professional tennis after the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga, Spain this November.

“The reality is that it has been some difficult years, these last two especially. I don’t think I have been able to play without limitations,” he said in a video released Thursday October 10.

“It is obviously a difficult decision and one that has taken me some time to make. But in this life, everything has a beginning and an end.”

Nadal, 38, won his first professional match aged 15, at a Challenger Tournament in Seville, and won 22 Grand Slam titles, including 14 French Opens. He will finish his career with a 112-4 record at Roland Garros, where he lost his final Grand Slam match against Alexander Zverev earlier this year.

In 2008 he broke Roger Federer’s streak of five Wimbledon titles in a final that lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes, in the first seismic shift of a 15-year-rivalry between the two players at the top of the men’s game. Alongside Novak Djokovic, Nadal and Federer formed the ‘Big Three,’ winning 66 Grand Slam titles between them to date with Djokovic still an active player.

While that 2008 Wimbledon final is regularly held up as one of the best matches of all time, Nadal and Djokovic’s 5 hour, 53 minute Australian Open final in 2012, which Djokovic won in five sets and their 2009 semifinal meeting in Madrid, which Nadal won in three, stand at least alongside it.

Together with those two, Nadal will bow out of tennis as one of the greatest male players of all time.

“I feel super, super lucky for all the things I have experienced. I want to thank the tennis industry and everyone in the sport: my long-term colleagues, especially my great rivals,” he said.

Nadal won his last Grand Slam title at the 2022 French Open, essentially playing on one foot after numbing his left with injections in order to compete. He then suffered an abdominal tear at Wimbledon 2022, and another injury at the 2023 Australian Open. His last singles appearance was at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he lost in a lopsided straight-sets defeat to Djokovic, who would win Olympic gold. Nadal won a singles gold medal of his own at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“I think it is the appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could ever have imagined,” he said.

Nadal is expected to play with Carlos Alcaraz at the Davis Cup, who is already a four-time Grand Slam champion at 21.

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(Photo: Clive Mason / Getty Images)