Rafael Nadal announced his retirement from professional tennis after months of continued struggles.
Nadal is the greatest clay-court player in the sport's history, and some of his achievements will likely never be broken or matched. He won 14 Roland Garros titles and 92 ATP Tour-level career titles.
He was the World No. 1 on the ATP Tour for 209 weeks, sixth most among men on the ATP Tour. The list of his achievements is too long to name, but at the moment, he sits on the 158th place in the ATP Rankings.
The reason is simple. His body didn't allow him to compete as he wanted to anymore. Since 2023, the Spanish player has rarely appeared on the court, completing only four matches that year.
This year, he attempted a comeback, but it soon became obvious that he wasn't able to play at the level that he wanted to anymore. He reached the final in Bastad but lost to Nuno Borges.
Since then, it has been unclear what Nadal's next step will be. He didn't want to compete for the ATP 250 titles; he wanted to play for the Grand Slams and an Olympic gold medal.
However, he also couldn't complete that dream, as he lost in the second round of the singles and in the quarter-final of the doubles tournament.
Recently, it was announced that Nadal would compete at the 2024 Davis Cup Final 8, and he has now confirmed that it will be his last professional tennis tournament.
The 38-year-old announced his retirement in an emotional video, posted across his social media pages, in which he looks back on his tennis career, which 'has been much more successful' than he anticipated.
"In this life, everything has a beginning and an end. And I think it’s the appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined."
He then announced that the last tennis tournament of his career would be the 2024 Davis Cup Final 8, and there truly doesn't seem to be a better place for him to do it.
Of course, Nadal's name is synonymous with the famed Roland Garros courts, but the Davis Cup Final 8 presents him with a great chance to end his tennis career in front of the Spanish crowd and also victoriously.
"I’m very excited that my last tournament will be the final of the Davis Cup, representing my country. I think I’ve come full circle since one of my first joys as a professional tennis player was the Davis Cup final in 2004."
The 2024 Davis Cup Final 8 will run from November 19th to 24th at Martin Carpena Arena in Malaga, Spain. Alongside Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, arguably one of the two best players in the world right now, will represent the Spanish team. Alcaraz will hope to help his country's legend end his tennis career victoriously.
Nadal already has four Davis Cup titles, winning the competition with Spain in 2004, 2009, 2011, and 2019, and this year, he will be hoping for one last victorious goodbye.