The 38-year-old tennis player will present himself to the fans for the last time at the November Davis Cup final in Málaga. And then he will say a final goodbye to the active track on which he won 92 titles at ATP events; of which 22 Grand Slams, among which 14 triumphs at the French Open had the privileged position, which is one of the most famous feats in the history of professional sports.
“I am here to inform you that I am retiring from professional tennis. The reality is that I have had some very difficult years. The last two especially. I wasn’t able to play without restrictions,” Nadal said in a published video message.
He last played at the Olympic tournament in Paris in late July, where he was eliminated in the second round of singles by his long-time rival Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
“Otherwise, Rafa has made Roland Garros his living room,” Sport.cz expert Jan Kukal assessed Nadal’s sovereign performance on clay. In the Grand Slam Paris, the Spanish Stachanov had an absolutely absurd match score of 112:4! He has only lost to Sweden’s Robin Söderling (2009), Djokovic (2015, 2022) and Germany’s Zverev (2024).
Along with Roger Federer and Djokovic, Nadal was part of a great tennis trio whose members not only competed with each other, but also inspired each other to perform fantastically. Their era will be considered the golden age of tennis.
Nadal ruled the world rankings for a total of 209 weeks, but his extremely demanding style took a toll on the Spaniard’s health. It’s actually a bit of a mystery that after a long period of trouble with knees and hips, it’s only now ending.
Among the Czech tennis players, Tomáš Berdych recorded the most wins against Nadal, yet he had a record of 4:20 against the Spanish senior. In 2004, the then seventeen-year-old Rafa was beaten by Jiří Novák in the Davis Cup. Lukáš Rosol scored a lifetime win over Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon 2012. And this year Jiří Leheček also managed to win over the clay legend in Madrid.
“To share the court with such a legendary player is a dream come true for me. I always believed and wished for it to happen. I am very grateful to have reached such a big moment,” Lehečka said. “It’s a bit bittersweet to experience such a nice result in front of all those people who are rooting for Rafa. But the energy was amazing. It was as if I was in another universe,” the Czech young man gushed.
The Davis Cup final tournament in Málaga will be played from November 19, the home team will face the Netherlands in the quarter-finals on the very first day. And Nadal will have frenetic support at the José Maria Martín Carpena Arena. You can bet on that.
