Rafael Nadal, considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, has announced that he will retire after the Davis Cup this November.
This time it’s over. Rafael Nadal (38) announced in a video that he would retire after the Davis Cup next November. The Spaniard, winner of 22 Grand Slam tournaments including 14 Roland-Garros, has had recent seasons marred by injuries.
>> Follow reactions live to the announcement of Rafael Nadal’s retirement
“Hi everyone, I’m here to tell you that I’m retiring from professional tennis,” the former world number 1 says in his video. “The reality is that the last few years have been difficult, especially the last two. I don’t think I’m capable of playing without limits. It’s obviously a difficult decision that took me time. But, in this life, everything has a beginning and an end and I think this is the right time to bring the end to a career that has been long and far more successful than I ever imagined.”
“I am very excited that my last tournament will be the Davis Cup final to represent my country,” he continues. “I think I would have come full circle from one of my first big joes as a professional tennis player which was the Davis Cup final in Seville in 2004. I feel super happy about all the things I have could not be experienced.”
“The Bull of Manacor” turns one of the most beautiful pages in the history of tennis, two years after the retirement of his great rival and friend, Roger Federer, with whom he engaged in a huge battle alongside the Serbian Novak Djokovic . He also paid tribute to them in his video with some extracts from their biggest confrontations.
The left-hander with the overdeveloped strong arm first wrote his legend on the clay of Roland-Garros where he triumphed 14 times. But he has also adapted his game to other surfaces with four coronations at the US Open, two on the grass at Wimbledon and two at the Australian Open. He will close his career with the second highest total of Grand Slams won behind Djokovic (24).
In total, Nadal has gleaned 92 singles titles which allowed him to be world number one over three different decades (2000, 2010, 2020, unheard of). The player with obsessive facial expressions before each point has enhanced his immense career with two Olympic titles: one in singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and one in doubles with Marc Lopez at the 2016 Tokyo Olympics. After struggling with injuries in recent seasons, he returned in time for the 2024 Olympics where he fell to Novak Djokovic (future winner) in the second round. Nadal will conclude a 22-year adventure at the highest level with the Davis Cup, which he has already won five times.
