MALAGA, Spain — Rafael Nadal’s professional tennis career is over, his final match a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands at the Davis Cup.
That defeat, coupled with Carlos Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers losing the doubles rubber 7-6(4), 7-6(3) to Wesley Koolhof and Van de Zandschulp, saw Spain eliminated from the Davis Cup and with it came the end for Nadal, one of the sport’s most successful players of all time, who confirmed that he would retire at the Davis Cup in October.
Nadal had flashes of his old self during the loss to Van de Zandschulp, but they were all too brief. A couple of aces in crucial moments. A snapped backhand overhead. A scampering chase after a lob that he got back with a spinning overhead while running away from the net.
Ultimately his game proved too meek to survive a powerful, modern player like Van de Zanschulp. Strokes that once would have pelted balls through the court ended up short, allowing the Dutchman to take the initiative off Nadal’s racket.
With Nadal out it was left to Carlos Alcaraz to save him and to save Spain. Alcaraz got halfway there, winning his singles match, but then he and Marcus Granollers fell to Van de Zandschulp and Wesley Koolhof in straight sets in the doubles.
Nadal sat with his teammates courtside, urging Granollers and Alcaraz on, standing and pumping his fists two at a time, trying to get them to hang in and give him one more chance at the court.
The match came down to two tiebreaks. Koolhof and Van de Zandschulp played some their best tennis when it counted most, with the weight of saving Nadal’s career for another round pressing down on the Spaniards. The Dutch took the first one 7-4. In the second, Van de Zandschulp turned it on with a lunging stab of a volley that nicked the outside of the sideline and a blazing passing shot that sent the Dutch on to the win. Koolhof, 35, is also retiring here. He was not ready to go. He celebrated.
Nadal stood and folded his arms. The end had come.
Rafael Nadal retires from tennis
Rafael Nadal won four Davis Cups with Spain. This one was not to be. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
When it was over, he tried to address the crowd in Spanish. The “Rafa, Rafa, Rafa” chant that has followed him around the world drowned him out. Then they let their hero speak.
“I have felt super fortunate to receive so much,” he said.
“It has been an incredible privilege, an honor that we have enjoyed. We achieved so many things,” he said, addressing members of Spain’s tennis team past and present. Alcaraz looked crestfallen on the sidelines.
“Nobody ever wants to arrive at this moment — I am not tired of playing tennis,” Nadal said.
“My body has arrived at a place where it cannot play anymore. I feel privileged to have extended my career longer than I expected. Thanks to life and to my team,” he added.
Video tributes came in from legends and rivals: Serena Williams, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Conchita Martinez, Juan Martin del Potro. Spanish sporting royalty, including Ballon d’Or holder Rodri, former Spain captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas and striker Raul, and golfer Sergio Garcia lent their voices. David Beckham addressed Nadal – in Spanish.
“I have tried to achieve my goals with respect, humility and appreciation for the good things I have experienced. I have tried to be a good person and I hope you have felt that. I leave the world of professional tennis having found many friends,” Nadal said.
Later, Alcaraz offered his own tribute on X, also in Spanish. “There will be many more Davis Cups. There is only one Rafa.
“I have become a professional tennis player thanks to you. It has been a blessing to live through your career, as a child for whom you were an idol and then as a teammate! The best possible ambassador, who leaves an eternal legacy,” he wrote.
It is an end that has been coming for two years, with Nadal struggling for form and fitness since his last Grand Slam title at the 2022 French Open.
He retires with 22 Grand Slam titles, second only to Djokovic in men’s tennis history with 24. He also won two Olympic gold medals — one in singles and one in doubles — and four Davis Cups, with a final total of 92 career singles titles.
Now 38, Nadal made his debut in professional tennis in 2001 at a Futures event, which is the third rung of the ATP tour. He started playing Challengers (a rung up but still one below the main ATP Tour) towards the end of 2002, and then made his main tour and Grand Slam debut the following year, reaching the Wimbledon third round.
Two years later he won his maiden Grand Slam at the French Open, the first of 14 titles at an event where he retires with a record of played 116, won 112, lost four. He won four French Opens in a row between 2005 and 2008, and after that fourth title he won his first non-clay major a few weeks later by beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon in a classic of the 2000s.
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Nadal won his first Australian Open six months later in January 2009, but suffered his first-ever defeat at Roland Garros that year to Robin Soderling in the fourth round. He responded by winning five more French Opens in a row between 2010 and 2014 and completing the “career Grand Slam” at 24 by winning the 2010 U.S. Open.
Injuries and a crisis of confidence saw him endure two barren years in 2015 and 2016, but with new coach Carlos Moya in tow he rebounded to win a 10th French Open and third U.S. Open in 2017. That “La Decima” title in Paris began another run of four straight Roland Garros titles, between 2017 and 2020, the last of which was a straight-sets battering of Djokovic, so often his bete noire.
In 2022 he moved ahead of Federer in the men’s Grand Slams leaderboard by winning a 21st and 22nd major at the Australian and French Opens, with that 14th title in Paris proved to be his final Grand Slam.
Though best known for a ferocious and indomitable will to win, Nadal was also one of the great shotmakers in tennis history and perhaps the most complete baseliner the sport has ever seen alongside Djokovic, propelled by his ripped forehand with so much topspin that it kicked high off the court and bamboozled opponents. His rivalries with Federer and Djokovic, who came to be known as the ‘Big Three,’ created some of the most memorable and high-quality matches in tennis history, each pushing the other to greater heights and creating three of the greatest players in the history of men’s tennis in the process.
Two of them have now bowed out.
(Top photo: Oscar J. Barroso / Getty Images)