The King of Clay, Spain’s Raging Bull, Rafael Nadal, the second of the Big Three (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic) and the third of the Big Four (the Big Three and Andy Murray) to soon leave the game of tennis forever, has announced his retirement last week in a video posted on X. “I think it’s an appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined,” he said. Indeed, Nadal, now 38 years old, had a very long and extremely successful career, one of the most distinguished in the history of the sport.
Throughout his career, Nadal has won 22 Grand Slam titles, the second most on the male side, held the world No. 1 rank continuously for 209 weeks (over four years), won two Olympic gold medals, earned $135 million dollars in prize money, and has defeated thousands of opponents from all over the world.
From his illustrious, 23-year career, he has become immortalized in tennis as in 2021 there was a silver statue of him hitting his famed left forehand unveiled at Roland Garros (the French Open), the tournament he has conquered a total of 14 times during his career—the most by any tennis player, male or female, at a single major in history. At the same tournament, he has also won 112 matches—also the most by any male player at a single major in the Open Era. As one of the most accomplished and dominant competitors in tennis, Nadal’s accolades, achievements, and contributions to the game go on forever, and attempting to list them all would be futile.
Furthermore, during the last two years, Nadal battled a long series of painful injuries, especially in his abdomen, and Mueller-Weiss Syndrome in his foot, which caused him to use numbing injections while playing at the French Open in 2022. “I don’t think I have been able to play without limitations,” he stated in his retirement announcement video, mentioned earlier. Since the beginning of his injury saga, Nadal hasn’t been able to play like he used to, in his dominant, tenacious way, which is one of the reasons why he exited this year’s French open, his most successful tournament, in a first-round loss to Alexander Zverev.
As Nadal is at the brink of the conclusion of his historic career in the sport of tennis, with his last performance being at the Davis Cup playing for his country, Spain, from November 19th to the 21st, this leaves Djokovic as the last one standing in the game. However, being only one year younger than Nadal, many fans and critics can also see his retirement as impending, which would conclude an entire generation of not only players but also of fans in tennis. Growing up playing and watching tennis, I constantly witnessed the victories of the Big Four—Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and Novak Djokovic—on my TV screen at every one of the major tournaments. These four legendary players have collectively changed the game of tennis forever and have inspired an entire new generation of players to which they are in the process of handing the reins as each of them retires one by one. The tennis community will deeply miss seeing Nadal on the court as it will never be the same without him. May the best wishes be sent to him during this next chapter of his life.
