Although his career ended at the Davis Cup Finals last week, the tributes to Rafael Nadal continue. The former world number 1 retired at the age of 38, having understood that it would make no sense to continue playing without having the chance to win the most important titles.
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A legend like Rafa who has been accustomed to being at the top of men's tennis for almost two decades could not accept a secondary role. The 22-time Grand Slam champion asked his body for one last effort in 2024, which was supposed to be his last dance, but he didn't get the results he would have hoped for.
The 14-time French Open champion focused on the tournaments in which he had been most successful during his career, playing mainly on red clay (with the exception of the Brisbane tournament at the beginning of the year), but his level was not good enough to give himself one last big title before quitting.
Bad results at Roland Garros and the Paris Olympics convinced him to retire, although it took Rafa longer than expected to announce his decision. His farewell ceremony in Malaga was not exceptional, because Spain was eliminated very early at the Davis Cup Finals and many important figures in his career were missing.
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Nadal had played very little in the last two years, which is why he had already become accustomed to his life away from tennis. The legend from Manacor has formed a beautiful family and will have no problem occupying the time after his retirement, also thanks to his Academy in Mallorca.
The Spanish GOAT
Recently, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes the Spanish Minister of Culture and Sport selected Rafa as the Spanish GOAT.
Rafa Nadal has undoubtedly been a hero of flesh and blood, he said during an interviewThe Athletic. Undoubtedly the best sportsman in our history he added.
The Spaniard ended his career with 22 Grand Slam titles, including 14 titles at Roland Garros, where he marked an era like no one else had done before him (not even Bjorn Borg).
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Rafa also won two Australian Open, two Wimbledon and four US Open, becoming a very competitive player on all surfaces despite the presence of two other legends such as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. The Big 3 have made tennis even more popular than it was before their arrival and have attracted numerous sponsors to our sport. Their contribution has been fundamental to the growth of tennis, in the hope that two young champions like Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will take their baton in the next decade. The Italian and the Spaniard has won all the Grand Slam tournaments this year.
Rennae Stubbs on Rafa's farewell
Everyone hoped Rafa's farewell ceremony would be better, but the organizers of the Davis Cup Finals were surprised by Spain's shocking elimination against Netherlands in the quarterfinals. David Ferrer's choice to use Nadal in the first singles proved to be a failure and propitiated the feat of the Netherlands, which won the tie in the decisive doubles and lost only in the final against Italy.
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The most appropriate decision would have been to field the Spanish legend in the decisive doubles, where he could have made the difference together with his friend and compatriot Marcel Granollers (with whom he had practiced a lot in the days before the start of the Finals).
On the latest edition of her podcast, Serena Williams former coach Rennae Stubbs compared Nadal's retirement to that of Steffi Graf: "Its like Steffi. Its interesting because Steffi just dropped the mic and walked away because she was hurting. Her body was hurting, her knee was hurting, her foot was hurting, her back was hurting. She was in love. Shed just met Andre, and they were dating, but she was different so she just stopped.
She just walked away, but shes very different to these personalities. She didnt love the spotlight, she just loved playing. I think Rafa is more similar to Steffi than Roger or Novak or Andy.
Stubbs continued: "Even the way he retired, just the whole circumstances around it, it was more about playing at home, being with his family, there was no other players there. There was just his teammates and it was kind of low-key and it was kind of like for Rafa that was enough.
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For Steffi it was like, 'Yeah, I dont need all that pomp and ceremony.' The first thing I said to her when she told me she was retiring, I was like, 'Wait what? The US Open is in like three weeks. Why dont you do it there?' And shes like, 'Nah, Im good.
