Nadal, the man of 22 Grand Slam titles, retires

Rafael Nadal, whose career ended today when Spain was eliminated from the Davis Cup, was the “King of clay” who also reigned on every other surface, accumulating 22 Grand Slam titles while his balanced behavior and humble, up and down off the pitch, endeared him to rivals and legions of fans. One of his defining qualities was an uncanny ability to win marathons, but he clearly enjoyed playing and competing and showed humility in victory and composure in defeat.

“The important legacy is that all the people I have met in these 20 years have a good human memory of me,” the 38-year-old Spanish superstar once said, “In the end, the personal question, education, respect and the affection with which one can treat people comes before the professional question, because that is what remains.” Nadal was born on the island of Mallorca in June 1986. His father Sebastian was a businessman, his mother Ana stopped working to raise her children. One of his uncles, Miguel Angel Nadal, played professional football for Barcelona, ​​although Rafa grew up to be a Real Madrid fan.

As a child, Nadal played soccer on the streets of his hometown of Manacor before focusing on tennis under the guidance of another uncle, Toni Nadal, who guided his career from 2005 to 2017. The ferocious top spin forehand Nadal’s would become his signature shot, while his uncle’s focus on attitude shaped the player and the man. “When I was young my uncle told me: if you throw the racket I will stop training you,” Nadal said. “If I hit a bad shot it’s my fault, not the racket’s. His fellow Mallorcan Carlos Moya, his coach in recent years on tour, was impressed by the young man. “I could see, from the intensity with which he trained, that he was super ambitious and he desperately wanted to get better. He hit every shot as if his life depended on it,” Moya said. Nadal turned professional at 14 and made his Wimbledon debut in 2003 at 17. At 18 he was part of the Spanish team that won the Davis Cup , playing and winning a singles match in the final.

Nadal won his first major title in 2005 at his first French Open, two days after turning 19. He won his last one, the 14th Roland Garros, 17 years later. Nadal amassed 92 titles and was a two-time Olympic gold medalist despite playing in an era that also boasted Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, the other two members of tennis’s dominant “Big Three” for more than a decade. Federer faced Nadal in 14 Grand Slam finals winning just four, the Swiss finishing his career with 20 majors, two fewer than the Spaniard. Nadal’s physical playing style has had a negative impact: injury has ruled him out of at least 11 Grand Slam events. But he continued to react. After the second half of his 2021 season was wiped out, he returned to break Federer’s record at the 2022 Australian Open and added a 22nd major at the French Open just after his 36th birthday. “If you don’t lose, you can’t enjoy the victories. You have to accept both,” Nadal said.

After that victory, he insisted he wasn’t worried if Djokovic broke the record. “It’s something that doesn’t bother me if Novak wins 23 and I stay at 22. I think my happiness won’t change at all, not even one percent.” Djokovic won three titles the following year bringing his total to 24. Nadal faced Djokovic 60 times, the last of which was at the Paris Olympics in July in a clash that proved to be Nadal’s last competitive match in singles before he announced his intention to retire. The pair played the longest Grand Slam final of all time: five hours and 53 minutes at the 2012 Australian Open in which the Serbian triumphed. In his private life, Nadal started dating Mery when he was 19 and they married in 2019. They had their first child, Rafael, in October 2022. “I love the sea,” he said several times. He owns a yacht and enjoys fishing and has become more than a skilled golfer. “I am excited to end a long and beautiful part of my life, enjoying these last moments as usual, accepting that everything has a beginning and an end.”