The King of Clay retires: Nadal leaves behind unmatchable legacy

MÁLAGA, Spain -- Rafael Nadal said he would only let his emotions break through at the end.

That was before he heard the first few bars of "Marcha Real" as he stood alongside his Spanish teammates on the court at the Martin Carpena Arena. Once those notes rang out, his thousand-mile stare, fixed on the upper tiers of the packed stands, was unwavering, but his eyes welled with tears.

The Nadal retirement narrative was inescapable around this Davis Cup, despite his best efforts to make it about the team, and not his own farewell. "I'm not here to retire; I'm here to help the team win," he said Monday.

But outside, there was a vast banner running around the nearby athletics stadium reading, "Gracias Rafa." The ticket prices had soared for this quarterfinal against the Netherlands -- everyone who has watched Nadal since his breakthrough over two decades ago wanted to catch one last glimpse of the man who is arguably Spain's greatest athlete ever. Roger Federer penned a 585-word tribute to Nadal, the man he calls his "old friend."

Ever since Nadal announced on Oct. 10 this was going to be his final act in tennis, it was always going to be about him, whether he liked it or not.

What followed was a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Botic van de Zandschulp. There were reminders of the old Nadal, the one who won 22 Grand Slams, ruled Roland Garros and established himself as one of the all-time greats. There were the fist pumps and shouts of "Vamos!" after key points. Even in the final notes of his career, only he could conduct a crowd quite like he does.

But then there was the reality of Nadal at 38 years old. The one who said his body could no longer match his competitive desires. And though he still performed with courage, his feet just couldn't match his mind on Tuesday. At the end of the day, Spain was ousted from the Davis Cup after a loss in doubles as well, and Nadal's storied career came to a close.

"I want to be remembered as a good person and a kid who followed their dreams and achieved more than I ever believed possible," he said.

NADAL'S CAREER BEGAN in Manacor, Spain, more than 500 miles from the Davis Cup's site in Málaga. It was there, under the guidance and tough coaching of his uncle Toni Nadal, where his talent quickly developed. He was a walking conundrum for opponents -- a right-handed player who played with his left hand -- and his unique ability to put topspin on the ball only added to his reputation.

He turned pro at 14 in 2001, won his first ATP match a year later at 15, and in April 2003 became the first 16-year-old to break into the top 100 on the men's side since Michael Chang managed the same feat in 1988.

Nadal's mentor has always been 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya, who has remained one of his closest confidants. And in their first official matchup at a tournament, in 2003 at the Hamburg Masters, a 16-year-old Nadal beat world No. 4 Moya.

"He was very shy, and nervous, and said, 'I'm sorry, I won.' And I said, 'No worries,'" Moya later said of that defeat to Nadal. "I understood that it was the first of many times that he would win and I knew he would go on to be a great player."

In 2004, he faced world No. 1 Federer for the first time, with Nadal winning in an upset at the Miami Open 6-3, 6-3. A year later, they met again on the same court. Federer was still a fiery player, a little more brash than the calm, magnanimous figure he would become. He slammed his racket against the court during the match and later said, "I'll see very much from him in the future. So for me, this was a big match because I know what a great player he will be one day."

At that stage, Nadal dressed in garish colors, sometimes sleeveless tops, three-quarter-length shorts, bandana sweeping back his wild, long hair. But he channeled his intensity through fist pumps and shouts of "Vamos!" rather than railing at the umpire or smashing rackets. Even to this day, he has never smashed a racket on the court.

"My family wouldn't have allowed me to break a racket," he said in a 2020 interview. "For me, to break a racket, it would be to lose control of my emotions."

ROLAND GARROS WILL always be regarded as Nadal's second home. Away from Mallorca, it's in Paris where he's most beloved.

His debut there came in May 2005, and it was 29-year-old Lars Burgsmuller who was Nadal's first victim. "Everyone was talking about him," Burgsmüller said in 2015. He had good form. He was on the way up. Everyone knew that he would be very, very good."

Four rounds later, on his 19th birthday, Nadal faced No. 1 seed Federer in the semifinal. Federer was the darling of the crowd, but it was Nadal who came through and won. "We won't see anyone like him for at least another five years," Federer said afterward. "And to come in here and keep it going in Roland Garros is also very special."

A couple of days later, having defeated Mariano Puerta in the final, Nadal held La Coupe des Mousquetaires for the first time. His back was caked in clay -- that celebration of sheer astonishment as he fell to the ground, arms and legs outstretched, was to become a familiar sight. And for the first time, his emotions broke through.

"I thought I was going to lose after he won the first set; I thought he could win," Nadal said afterward. "But I fight for every ball. When I have problems in the match, I fight, I fight, I fight every game. These moments are very strong, and when you reach your goal, it's an extraordinary moment. For the first time, I cried after winning a match. It has never happened to me before."

Since 2021, there has been a statue honoring Nadal on site, and the vast steel structure outside Court Philippe Chatrier is a permanent reminder of the mark he has left. When it was unveiled, the man himself was still sweating on the clay just a hundred or so meters from that immortalization of him, and he'd go on to win another title there in 2022.

It'll be on that patch of clay where his legacy shines brightest: 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles came there. He leaves the French Open with an astonishing 96.5% winning record.

WHILE NADAL'S RECORD on clay will surely be unsurpassed, there are other titles in his remarkable career that anchor him as one of tennis's greats. There's the 2008 Wimbledon final triumph over Federer, widely regarded as one of the finest matches the sport has ever seen. Then there's the 13-year gap between his two Australian Open titles -- winning his second in 2022 just a couple of months after he contemplated retiring. There are also four US Open titles to boot, two Olympic gold medals -- one in singles, one in doubles -- and his four Davis Cup titles. It's an incredible haul.

And then there was his rivalry with Federer. The two met a total of 40 times, with Nadal winning 24 of them and holding a 14-10 record in finals. But the two became close friends, as well. There's an iconic photo of them holding hands at the 2022 Laver Cup, crying as Federer drew the curtain on his career.

"I have it at home, framed," Federer said in June, "And when I pass by it, it always catches my attention because it reflects our camaraderie, our friendship and also the rivalry, all in one single image. That's what this photo stands for to me. It was a great moment, short; take his hand for a second and show him my gratitude through that touch."

Federer, five years older, was always the one for Nadal to chase. Novak Djokovic, who would go on to set the overall Grand Slam record and become the other member of the Big Three, started his career a little later. He chased the pair of them.

"For me [Federer] was always the guy to beat," Nadal said in 2022. "So at some point, we were probably the biggest rivals I think always in a very good way. We respect a lot each other, families, teams. I mean, we never had big issues, no? On the court, we have opposite styles, and that's what probably makes our matches and our rivalry one of the biggest and most interesting."

Their contrasting tennis style was also matched by their fashion. Ahead of the 2008 Wimbledon final, Federer wore a bespoke cardigan, embroidered with RF logos, and an immaculate polo shirt. Nadal was in a sleeveless white tank top, with shorts below his knees.

But Nadal's style changed as he got older, and by 2010 he'd taken on T-shirts, and his shorts were more typical in length. "I think it's a pity he gave up his pirate pants and the sleeveless [shirts]," Federer said in 2010. "I thought our styles were colliding even more then. I kind of miss it."

In 2010, Nadal became the youngest man, at 25, to win a career Grand Slam (each of the four titles) when he won the US Open, beating Djokovic in four sets. But behind closed doors, Nadal's body was starting to hamper him, and so began a Sisyphean battle between body and mind, the great Spaniard forever fighting back from the brink of retirement to keep himself going for one more Slam.

NADAL'S ACHILLES HEEL was his left foot. Even back in his capri pants days, the left foot was troublesome. He suffered a stress fracture in 2004, and had issues with it again at the end of the 2005 season and the start of 2006. There were rumors at the time that the injury was chronic. Then in 2009 he revealed he was having issues with tendonitis in both knees -- and that would end up plaguing his next three years. He'd continue winning, but all the time, he was battling increased pain.

In his 2011 autobiography "Rafa: My Story," he talked about the need to treat every match as his last. "We are enormously privileged and fortunate, but the price of our privilege and good fortune is that our careers end at an unnaturally young age. And worse, that injury can cut your progress short at any time and from one week to the next you might be forced into premature retirement. You must enjoy what you do and the chances that come your way once won't necessarily come your way again, so you squeeze the most out of every opportunity, every single time, as if it were your last."

It's tough to pinpoint the exact moment when Nadal's struggles increased to the point of being near retirement, but at the beginning of 2022, Nadal had been out of action since the previous May.

"Honestly, I have been suffering much more than I should with my foot for a year and I need to take some time ... to find a solution to this problem or at least improve it to continue to have options for the next few years," Nadal said in August 2021. A month later, there were further retirement-related alarm bells when he said, "I don't know when I will play again. There are always things that I can't control 100 percent, but inside my head, I'm clear on what my objectives are and I trust that things will follow a positive course."

But, seemingly against the odds, Nadal made it to the Australian Open in 2022, and started winning. There it felt as though Nadal was playing out his encore, trying to play with more freedom, less stress and an appreciation of what he had achieved. He appeared to be trying to see how much fun he could eke out in whatever was left in his career.

At the beginning of the tournament, Djokovic, Federer and Nadal were all tied at 20 Grand Slams apiece. By the end of that fortnight in Melbourne, and after a triumph over Daniil Medvedev in the final, Nadal had 21 Slams. Four months later, he'd have number 22, his last and final Slam.

After the 2022 French Open final win over Casper Ruud, Nadal stood facing his adoring fans in the heart of Court Philippe-Chatrier. He'd just become the oldest men's French Open champion, at 36. The renditions of "Bella Ciao" and "Olé, Olé!" had subsided, and his adoring fans waited to hear from the man. Rumors were doing the rounds that Nadal was going to retire. It was like the whole place collectively held its breath. But he wasn't ready.

"I don't know what is going on in the future. I will keep fighting to keep going," he said, to exhales and cheers. But it was the last time we saw him in his prime at Roland Garros.

A couple of hours after that final, he revealed that for the past fortnight, he hadn't been able to feel his left foot. Every morning before practice or playing, he numbed the injury by injecting the nerve to allow him to play. The injury caused him to be in pain when walking, let alone playing. After Roland Garros, Nadal underwent a radiofrequency nerve ablation, which targeted the specific nerve leading to the painful area of his foot.

It helped his foot, but Nadal became mired in an abdominal and hip injury that sidelined him for most of 2023.

In May 2023 he called a news conference at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor, and spoke about his plans for the future. "Even though your head wants to keep going, your body says this is as far as it goes. You never know how things will turn out, but I intend that [2024] will be my last year. I don't deserve to end my career like this, in a press conference."

NADAL HAS ALREADY put into place robust retirement plans. His eponymous tennis academies are established in Mexico, Greece, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Egypt. Current players are benefiting from it -- Felix Auger-Aliassime, Ruud, Lorenzo Sonego and Emil Ruusuvuori all have trained there. He owns restaurants in Madrid, Ibiza and Valencia, and has interests in a real estate business, hotels and a renewable energy business. In 2013 he launched his own clothing line with Nike, with bull horns to symbolize his "Raging Bull" nickname. Then there's his legendary love of Real Madrid. Rumors have long circulated that he may become president of the football club after his retirement from tennis, with a source telling ESPN that there is an expectation that this will be true, though the timetable is unknown.

His name will continue beyond the sport, but the Nadal effect has already helped usher through the next generation of stars such as Carlos Alcaraz. "Rafa was my hero when I was young and started playing tennis," Alcaraz said in 2023.

Even those he defeated on the court hold that memory close. "I can hopefully one day tell my grandkids that I played Rafa on Chatrier in the final, and they will probably say, 'Wow, did you?'" Ruud said after losing in straight sets in the 2022 French Open final. "I will say 'Yes.'"

Nadal's final singles match at Roland Garros was against Alexander Zverev last May. He came into the match in patchy form, 5-3 on clay, and had already been given send-offs in Barcelona and Madrid as part of his expected farewell. Over three hours and five minutes, he lost to Zverev in straight sets.

"If it's the last time that I played here, I am at peace with myself," Nadal said. "I tried everything to be ready for this tournament for almost 20 years. And today and the last two years I have been working and going through probably the toughest process in my tennis career, with the dream to come back here. At least I did that. I mean, I lost, but that's part of the business."

Nadal was in both the singles and doubles draw for the Olympics. He competed alongside Alcaraz in the doubles, reaching the quarterfinals, and lost to Djokovic in the second round in singles. "Back in 2006, I don't think we would have thought we would be playing against each other on the same court at the Olympics," Djokovic said. "So I think we will appreciate this match very much. I think our rivalry and I think for the sport itself."

Djokovic remains the last of the Big Three still going, and now sits out ahead of the two with 24 Grand Slams, four ahead of Federer, two up on Nadal. Djokovic is railing against the dying light, trying to add further titles to his remarkable haul, but he won't have the pull of a Nadal or Federer lying in wait.

"When [Nadal] announced that he's going to have his last season of his career, I felt part of me is leaving with him too if you know what I mean," Djokovic said last November. "I feel that he was one of the most impactful people that I have ever had in my career, the growth of my career, and me as a player. A great motivational factor for me is to keep playing and keep competing and keep pushing each other, you know, who's going to achieve more, who's going to do better. I felt also a little bit emotional about what he was saying."

He later added, "He's a big warrior. He's somebody that never gives up. With all the injuries that he had, he keeps going. That's something that you have to respect and admire about him and his spirit."