Two years after Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal in Malaga became the second member of the “Big 3” of tennis to put away his rackets for good, after a defeat in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup. Rafael Nadal’s immense career ended on Wednesday November 19, after Spain lost 2-1 against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
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After 23 years on the circuit and almost as many Grand Slam titles (22), it was the Netherlands and their surprising Botic van de Zandschulp who pushed Nadal towards the exit at 38 years old. In the first singles of the day, the Mallorcan left-hander lost in two sets against the 80th player in the world, winner 6-4, 6-4.
“ I lost my first Davis Cup match » in 2004, « I just lost my last match. The circle is closed », reacted Nadalwhose career has been punctuated by countless injuries, between almost miraculous returns to the forefront.
Unrivaled on clay
The eternal rival of Switzerland Roger Federer (20 Grand Slam titles) and Serbian Novak Djokovic (24 titles) had not played an official match since his defeat on July 31 in the quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament. Federer praised it on social networks. “ You made me work harder than I ever imagined (…) You forced me to reinvent my game (…) What an incredible career you had », congratulated the Swiss.
Unrivaled on clay, Rafael Nadal extended his domination to all surfaces thanks to his stainless mentality and his resilience in the face of injuries, which ended up getting the better of him. Rafael Nadal has crushed the competition in ocher for almost twenty years, since his professional debut in 2001, but reducing his palette to this color would be a mistake. For former world number 1 and Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt, Nadal is “ one of the greatest players of all time “.
With 92 trophies, the throne of world number 1 occupied for 209 weeks, four Davis Cups and two Olympic gold medals, in singles (2008) and doubles (2016), he has one of the most abundant records with those of Djokovic and Federer.
In January 2022, in Melbourne, the Spaniard became, after Djokovic, the second player in the Open era (since 1968) to win each of the four Grand Slam tournaments at least twice.
He himself places above his two victories on the grass of Wimbledon in 2008 and 2010. Especially the first, won in a legendary match against the Swiss champion, co-author with him of one of the most exciting soap operas in history sports.
The king in Paris
But it is on clay that his art has reached perfection. During his career, he was almost unbeatable from April to June thanks to his uncontrollable lift and his supersonic slides: 484 matches won out of 535 played, more than 90% success. His Parisian triumphs, from 2005 to 2008, from 2010 to 2014, from 2017 to 2020 and in 2022, are his masterpieces. No champion has ever managed to win the same Grand Slam tournament so many times… or any other category for that matter.
No one else has ever won 81 matches in a row on clay, a record set between April 2005 and May 2007, nor stacked 63 titles on this surface.
Less technically gifted than Federer, the left-handed Nadal (but right-handed in life) triumphed thanks to his mentality, this “ ability to accept difficulties and overcome them, superior to that of most of (its) rivals ”, in his words, and to his exceptional power of concentration.
His body has often been his worst enemy. From 2006, Nadal thought he was lost due to chronic pain (Müller-Weiss syndrome) in his left foot. This pain which comes and goes without ever disappearing became particularly debilitating at the very end of his career: he won his fourteenth and last Roland-Garros with an anesthetized foot.
Knee and wrist problems also kept him off the courts for long periods, not to mention abdominal tears. Rafael Nadal attempted a final comeback in 2024 in Paris: first at Roland-Garros, then at the Olympic Games. He actually played there, but far from his best form.