Nadal announced his retirement

World tennis legend Rafael Nadal announced his retirement from his professional career at the end of the season.

In his account on the X network, the 38-year-old Spaniard published a post with a video clip from many episodes of his 23-year career, which, according to the accompanying text from Rafael himself, finally came to an end.

“I want to inform you that I am retiring from professional tennis. The reality is that these have been difficult years, especially the last two. I don’t think I’ve been able to play without restrictions.”

“Obviously this is a difficult decision that took me some time to make. But in this life everything has a beginning and an end, and I think now is the time to end a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have imagined.”

“I am very happy that my last tournament will be the Davis Cup final and represent my country. “I feel like I’ve come full circle because one of my first great pleasures as a professional tennis player was the Davis Cup final in Seville in 2004.”

In the same post, Nadal wrote “Thank you everyone!” in 12 languages.

Nadal’s professional career on Tour started in 2001. He topped the ATP world rankings for 209 weeks. In total, he won 22 victories at Grand Slam tournaments, including 14 at Roland Garros (an all-time record), and the Spaniard won each of the four majors at least twice. Rafael is also a two-time Olympic champion: Beijing 2008 – in singles, Rio 2016 – in doubles.

Let us remind you that the Spaniard missed almost a year due to injury, returning to tennis only in January 2024. Over eight months, Rafael played only 19 matches, in which he won 12 victories. At the same time, at the Australian Open, Nadal was eliminated in the second round, at Roland Garros 2024 he was immediately eliminated by Zverev, and he missed two more majors – Wimbledon and the US Open.

In July, the legendary tennis player reached his first ATP tournament final in two years (in Swedish Bostad), but there he lost to the Portuguese Nuno Borges.

Nadal’s last performance today was the tennis tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris – there Rafa reached the second round, where Novak Djokovic crossed his path once again.

Nadal will sum up his eventful and glorious career in the final tournament of the Davis Cup for 8 teams, which will be played from November 19 to 24 in Malaga, Spain.

Mil gracias a todos Many thanks to allMerci beaucoup à tousGrazie mille à tutti谢谢大家شكرا لكم جميعا תודה לכולכםObrigado a todosVielen Dank euch allenTack allaPraise SwimGràcies a tots pic.twitter.com/7yPRs7QrOi

— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) October 10, 2024