Tennis great Rafael Nadal has announced he is retiring from the sport at the end of the season.
Nadal, 38, has enjoyed an astonishing career, which saw him win 22 Grand Slams, including 14 French Open titles. But he has been hampered by injuries in recent years, and he announced on Thursday that this will be his final year playing the sport.
Nadal will play for Spain against the Netherlands in the Davis Cup in Malaga from Nov. 19-21. That will be his final act on the tennis court, in a sport where he stood alongside Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray as four modern greats in the men’s game.
Nadal broke through onto the scene ahead of the 2005 French Open where he won the tournament at his first attempt. From there he established remarkable dominance on clay where he won 14 tournaments in 18 years at Roland Garros (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022).
He also triumphed the Australian Open (2009, 2022), Wimbledon (2008, 2010), and the US Open (2010, 2013, 2017, 2019).
His victory over Federer on Centre Court at the All England Club in 2008 is widely regarded to be one of the finest matches the men’s sport has ever seen, where Nadal triumphed 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7.
Nadal is already immortalised at Roland Garros with a statue outside Court Philippe-Chatrier, but it will be his dominance on clay for which he will remain synonymous in retirement.
In recent years, Nadal has struggled with injury. He has Mueller-Weiss syndrome in his foot — a condition that saw him use injections to get through the 2022 French Open to numb the pain — and has struggled with abdominal injuries in the past couple of years.
He missed the Australian Open this year, although he did manage to play in the French Open, where he lost in the first round to Alexander Zverev. His focus this year was always going to be on clay. He managed to play at Roland Garros both in the French Open and Paris Olympics, where he teamed up with Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s doubles at the Games.
But it will be in Malaga where he bows out from the sport next month.
Nadal announced his retirement on his social media accounts on Thursday morning: “I am here to let you know I am retiring from professional tennis. The reality is that it has been some difficult years, the last two especially. I don’t think I have been able to play without limitations.”