Tennis endings, like many endings, are usually far from perfect, but Rafael Nadal still has a chance to go out in style.
If his body cooperates – no sure thing based on 20 years of data – he will say farewell to the game that he has played with such passion and grit during the Davis Cup Finals in late November in Malaga, Spain.
Nadal, 38, announced his impending retirement in a video message on Thursday. This is no surprise based on his age and recent results, including a first-round defeat at the French Open, a tournament he has won an astounding 14 times. But this is still quite a moment for reflection and appreciation.
Born, raised and still in residence on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Nadal has given it all on the practice courts and center courts of the world, redefining the boundaries of point-by-point focus and rinse-and-repeat achievement and putting on a show with his slashing forehand and swashbuckling defense.
“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,” Nadal said in his message. “It is obviously a difficult decision, one that has taken me some time to make. But in this life, everything has a beginning and an end.”
He spent 209 weeks at No. 1 and won 92 tour singles titles, 22 of them in Grand Slam tournaments, which is second in the history of men’s tennis only to Novak Djokovic, his most frequent rival. Djokovic has 24 majors and might have one or two more in him, although I doubt it based on the quality of Carlos Alcaraz’s and Jannik Sinner’s next-generation games.
But with Roger Federer retiring in 2022 and Nadal retiring this year, Djokovic will be the last of the Big Three on tour. Andy Murray, who briefly made it a Big Four, also called it a career in 2024 at the Olympics in Paris at Roland Garros.
Nadal, a two-time gold medalist, carried the torch during the Opening Ceremony, quite an honor for a Spaniard and a sign of how much he has become part of the culture and the furniture in France.
Though he struggled with injuries for most of the last two years, he had high hopes for the Olympic tournament, skipping the grass season and Wimbledon and putting all his chips on the red clay where he has so often been triumphant, with or against the odds.
Not this time. Nadal was beaten comprehensively by Djokovic in straight sets in the second round and then lost with Alcaraz in the quarterfinals in doubles to Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek of the United States.
There were no medals and no last hurrah in Paris, but there could be a full-circle moment in Malaga. Nadal made his first big impression on tour in 2004 by beating Federer in Miami in their first of many singles duels. Later that year, Nadal became a star when the Spanish Davis Cup captains took a chance and picked Nadal to play the opening match against former No. 1 Andy Roddick in the final against the United States.
They played in chilly conditions on slow red clay in Seville, Spain, and Nadal, just 18 years old, grabbed the occasion by the scruff of the neck and refused to let go, playing with great skill and gusto to defeat the tenacious but overmatched Roddick in four sets.
It was an upset that put Spain on track to win the Cup, but it was also foreshadowing as Roddick, one of the more perceptive men in tennis, could sense. The teenager, coached from an early age by his uncle Toni, already was a force of nature, a competitive “beast” to use the pro tour’s vernacular, and so he would remain when he was not forced off tour by injuries.
Nadal routinely ground opponents’ hopes into red dust as he generated acute angles and above-the-shoulder trajectories and yet, as the victories piled up, he never seemed complacent, fully absorbed in the day-to-day challenge of getting the best out of himself. He expanded his range to grass and hardcourts, winning Wimbledon twice, reeling in Federer after a long chase by winning one of the greatest matches ever played in the 2008 final. He won his first hardcourt major at the Australian Open in 2009, defeating Federer in another five-setter, and completed the career Grand Slam at the US Open in 2010, defeating Djokovic before the Serbian became close to automatic in Melbourne.
Many tennis insiders and observers, including yours truly, predicted that Nadal would not last long given his style of play and propensity to get injured. But he made a mockery of such soothsaying, excelling deep into his thirties and becoming the only man to have been ranked No. 1 in three decades. His last big surge came in 2022 when he won the Australian Open by rallying from a two-set deficit to defeat Daniil Medvedev in a late-night final and then won yet another French Open, this time after numbing his foot before each round with painkilling medication.
His 14th Roland Garros title was his most improbable, and there were rumblings that he might retire then and there. But Nadal pushed on, undergoing an unusual medical procedure that helped alleviate his foot pain, and returned to Wimbledon, where he withdrew before the semifinals because of a torn abdominal muscle.
That had not kept him from defeating Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals in what turned out to be Nadal’s last match at Wimbledon. Unless he plays and wins a tournament before the Davis Cup Finals, his 2022 Roland Garros victory will be his last individual title.
He had hoped for a more extensive farewell season. When he announced last year that 2024 was likely to be his last on tour, he anticipated playing again at the Australian Open, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Monte Carlo Open, which he has won 11 times. Yet he was unable to stay healthy long enough to take part in any of those events and has not played since the Olympics.
But he has a real chance to go out on a high note with Alcaraz, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, set to lead the Spanish team in Malaga. Davis Cup has lost steam and prestige, but it remains the premier team event in men’s tennis, and though Nadal has not played it since 2019, he has often made it a priority. He has a 29-1 singles record in the competition and has played a part in winning five Davis Cups.
“I am very excited that my last tournament will be the final of the Davis Cup and representing my country,” Nadal said. “I think I’ve come full circle, since one of my first great joys as a professional tennis player was the Davis Cup final in Seville in 2004.”
David Ferrer, Nadal’s friend and former rival who is now the Spanish captain, could pair Nadal and Alcaraz again in doubles or pair one of them with Marcel Granollers, Spain’s best regular doubles player. Ferrer has said he is open to using Nadal in singles, too, and the Spaniards have a favorable draw, playing the Netherlands in the quarterfinals on Nov. 19. Win that and they would play in the semifinals on Nov. 22 against Canada or Germany, which does not have star player Alexander Zverev on its roster, at least not yet.
Whatever the outcome, it will be Nadal, so long the pride of his nation, representing Spain in Spain, which seems a fitting way to draw the curtain on one of the greatest careers in the history of sports.
CC
P.S. I am busy, busy finishing the manuscript for The Warrior, my upcoming book on Nadal, set to be released in 2025. Hope you’ll consider preordering a copy.
I hope you had a PS ready for the last chapter! The many tributes from players are coming in - some published in lofty dailies and some in downmarket tabloids. Here's one you're unlikely to read from a nine-time opponent: 'Damn, I've had nightmares that have woke me up about Rafa. I'm gonna miss them. This was someone that I used to prepare for, he was a motivation - I guess an inspiration. F...- it's true - people do bring the best out of you. You were one of those people. thanks, damn... "7000 likes. (NK) Best match I ever saw live; fourth round AO 2020 centre court Rafa vs NK crowd going wild over every single point no matter who won it. All wearing Kobe Bryant shirts. So close. Amazing warrior atmosphere. That was tennis.
Great writing as always, epic story of Nadal’s achievement!
I look forward to your book! I ordered it!