Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal, winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, announced Thursday that he will end his career after the Davis Cup final with Spain, scheduled for November 19-24 in Malaga.
“I am here to tell you that I am leaving professional tennis… In life, everything has a beginning and an end and I believe that the time has come to end my career, which has been long and much more successful. success than I could have imagined,” the 38-year-old player said in a video posted on his X account.
Referring to his great physical difficulties over the last two years, he nevertheless clarified that he would still compete in one last competition, namely the Davis Cup final scheduled for Malaga.
“I am very excited about the idea that my last tournament will be the Davis Cup final, and to represent my country there,” said the Mallorcan.
“I think it’s a way of coming full circle when one of my first great joys as a professional player was the final” of this competition, won in 2004 in Seville, he added.
Over the past two decades, the Spaniard has dominated world tennis with his two great rivals, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, totaling 66 Grand Slam titles between them.
Rafael Nadal is above all the absolute master on clay, winning Roland-Garros 14 times. If he had declined a tribute after his early elimination during the 2024 edition in the spring, the Spaniard had been selected among the last flame bearers during the Paris Olympics ceremony on July 26, testimony to his Porte d aura. ‘Auteuil, where his statue already sits.
Of the legendary trio, he is the second to retire after Roger Federer in 2022, at age 41. The Swiss’ last match in the Laver Cup in London saw the two players, accomplices, in tears, side by side.
Only Novak Djokovic, 37, remains, who holds the greatest number of Grand Slam titles (24). The Serbian, however, in turn experienced a delicate year 2024, marked by physical problems, not winning any Major in the face of the rise in power of the young guard, the Italian Jannik Sinner and the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. Olympic champion in Paris, he nevertheless still occupies 4th place in the world and is currently competing in the Masters 1000 in Shanghai.