Rafael Nadal has confirmed he will retire from professional tennis after the Davis Cup finals in Malaga, Spain, in November.

“The reality is that it has been a difficult few years, particularly the last two. I don’t think I was able to play without restrictions,” the 38-year-old said in a video posted on Thursday, October 10.

“It’s obviously a difficult decision that took me some time. But in this life everything has a beginning and an end.”

Nadal won his first professional match at the age of 15 at a Challenger tournament in Seville and went on to win 22 Grand Slam titles, including 14 French Open. He will finish his career with a record of 112-4 at Roland Garros, where he lost his last Grand Slam match to Alexander Zverev earlier this year.

In 2008, he broke Roger Federer’s streak of five Wimbledon titles in a final that lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes, in the first shift of a 15-year rivalry between the two players at the top of the men’s game. Alongside Novak Djokovic, Nadal and Federer formed the “Big Three” and have won 66 Grand Slam titles together. Federer retired in 2022 at the age of 41, but Djokovic is still an active player.

While the 2008 Wimbledon final is regularly considered one of the best matches of all time, Nadal and Djokovic’s 5 hour, 53 minute long 2012 Australian Open final, which Djokovic won in five sets, and their 2009 semifinal meeting in Madrid, which Nadal won won in three, at least standing next to it.

Along with these two, Nadal will retire from tennis as one of the greatest male players of all time.

“I am very, very lucky for all the things that I have experienced. “I would like to thank the tennis industry and everyone in this sport: my long-time colleagues, especially my great rivals,” the Spaniard added.

“I think it is the right time to end a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined.”

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Nadal won his last Grand Slam title at the 2022 French Open, essentially playing on one foot after numbing his left one with injections to be able to compete. He then suffered an abdominal tear at Wimbledon 2022 and another injury at the Australian Open 2023. His last singles appearance was at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he lost in a lopsided straight sets defeat to Djokovic, who would go on to win Olympic gold. Nadal won a gold medal in singles at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

He is expected to play at the Davis Cup alongside his compatriot Carlos Alcaraz, who at 21 is already a four-time Grand Slam winner.

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Nadal’s retirement announcement isn’t a huge surprise, but it still feels jarring.

Men’s tennis without Nadal just doesn’t seem right. He has been such a dominant, unique figure in this sport for almost 20 years – a true one-of-a-kind whose reputation and reverence extends far beyond tennis. One only has to look at the outpouring of emotion from figures across all sports, particularly in football and especially in Spain, to realize its global impact.

It wasn’t just about what he achieved on the pitch, but also how he achieved it. Somehow he was part raging bull, part impeccably behaved athlete, first changing the perception of clay court players and then obliterating them.

Nadal was initially considered as such when he won the French Open in 2005, but then developed one of the best all-court games in the history of the sport, winning 22 Grand Slam titles and becoming one of the best volleyball players in the men’s game by the end his career. In addition to these 14 French Open titles, he won two Wimbledon titles, two Australian Open titles and four US Open titles.

His rivalry with Roger Federer shaped tennis in the 2000s and made the sport accessible to a larger audience than ever before. The 2008 Wimbledon final that Nadal won is considered by many to be the greatest match of all time, but his 2012 Australian Open final against Novak Djokovic and their three 2009 ATP clay-court meetings (in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome) also stand among many others.

The 2008 Wimbledon final marked the moment when Rafael Nadal became an existential threat to Roger Federer. (Lewis Whyld/Pool via Getty Images)

For many, Nadal is the greatest player and competitor to ever play the men’s game, with certainly the fiercest and most effective forehand the sport has ever seen.

It is the nature of sport for stars to constantly evolve and of course, rationally, we knew this day would always come. And yet somehow Nadal felt immortal, able to constantly withstand serious injuries to rise back to the top of the sport and win one of his biggest prizes, the 2022 French Open, with a functional foot.

At 38, he has struggled with one too many injuries and it is time to say goodbye. But the legacy he leaves behind will never be forgotten.

(Photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images)