Tennis great Nadal to retire.after Davis Cup next month

Rafael Nadal has confirmed his retirement from tennis later this year, bringing to an end the career of one of the greatest players of all time during which he won 22 grand slam titles.

- LUKE BAKER

Nadal released a video on social media stating that November's Davis Cup finals on home soil in Malaga would be his final tournament as he prepares to bow out from tennis after almost 20 years at the top.

The Spaniard is widely regarded as the greatest clay-court player of all time, having won a record 14 French Open titles, racking up 63 tournament victories on the surface and notching an incredible 81 consecutive wins on clay at one stage. He also became the youngest man of the open era to win the career grand slam (all four grand slam titles) when he completed the remarkable accomplishment at the 2010 US Open. He was 24-years-old.

Such was his dominance at Roland Garros, that a 10 feet steel sculpture of Nadal has stood at its gates since 2021, alongside the “Four Musketeers” of French tennis – Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste – the men who, between them, swept Roland Garros between 1924 and 1932.

He spent 209 weeks ranked as world No 1 and, alongside longtime rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, formed a “big three” that dominated tennis for more than a decade, heralding one of the most popular eras in the sport’s history. He has battled injury over the past two years, with plenty of speculation that he would hang up his racket, and the 38-year-old has now confirmed the rumours.