From the time Rafael Nadal emerged on tour in 2003, all dark flashing eyes, blazing intensity and a prodigious topspun lefty forehand, the only thing missing was the plinth.
Finishing touches to the statue are probably already being applied, now that Nadal has come to the end of his gargantuan career at age 38.
He will be remembered as the King of Clay, the man who eclipsed Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic with the most Grand Slam singles titles – if for a limited time – and arguably the most indomitable competitor tennis has known.
READ MORE: Retiring Rafa's slice of AO history stands tall
If ever a tennis star was destined to be cast in bronze, it was the quiet-spoken, faintly piratical young man from Manacor, Mallorca.
Nadal, fittingly, drew his career to a close just a short flight away in Malaga, as Spain hosted the Davis Cup finals – a competition in which Nadal built a colossal 37-6 record, including 29-2 in singles.
Nadal’s career was epic from start to finish. He won the 2005 French Open on debut as a teenager. In his first Davis Cup outing as a 17-year-old, he clinched the tie in the decisive fifth rubber. Months later he upended former No.1 Andy Roddick in the final at home, the first of five Davis Cups he helped win for Spain. On the hardcourts of Miami in 2004, Nadal won his first ever bout with Roger Federer, in straight sets – a result weighted with far more significance than we could have imagined.
No player has dominated a surface or a tournament like the Spaniard at Roland Garros. Nadal was undefeated in 14 finals, with a preposterous 112 match wins for four losses (to Robin Soderling in 2009, Djokovic in 2015 and 2021, and Alexander Zverev this year).
To think we once considered Bjorn Borg’s six French Opens unbeatable.
Nadal also amassed record hauls on the clay courts of Barcelona (12 titles), Monte Carlo (11) and Rome (10).
But the colossus of clay didn’t stay in his lane. To his fearsome forehand – one of the most devastating weapons in the history of the game – he added a backhand slice and touch at the net, retooled his serve, and built up his dare and confidence on other surfaces like adding musculature.
By 2008, Nadal tenaciously toppled Federer in their third straight Wimbledon final, 9-7 in the fifth – for some pundits, the greatest match of all-time – and took over the top ranking at age 22, after a record 160 straight weeks at world No.2.
By 24, at the 2010 US Open, Nadal swept his career Grand Slam, the youngest man to do so in the pro era.
Belying his muscular image – reflected in his sleeveless shirts and the ‘raging bull’ logo – was the fact Nadal was bedevilled by injury. Conventional wisdom had him marked for early retirement. Chronic foot issues, his violent playing style and long grinding battles on clay didn’t suggest longevity. Even Nadal himself didn’t expect to play much beyond 30.
His 209 weeks as No.1 were fractured across eight stints. He missed 14 majors through injury. Six times, he qualified but did not play the year-end ATP Finals.
Yet Nadal finished No.1 in 2019, the last year before the havoc of the pandemic. And despite the emergence of younger stars in 2022 – Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz both seized the No.1 ranking – Nadal was the only multiple major winner that season and, at 36, could have wrested the No.1 ranking from his playalike countryman, Alcaraz, in the last event of the year.
No other champion has rebounded so often from injury and absence, so defiantly, as Nadal. Ultimately though his physical issues proved too much to endure.
Nadal was halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam when he won in Paris in 2022 – but that Roland Garros title would prove the last trophy he ever lifted. An abdominal injury forced him to withdraw ahead of his subsequent Wimbledon semifinal, and it lingered throughout the season.
NADAL: "If it's the last time I played here, I am in peace"
A hip injury, sustained in his second round match at Australian Open 2023, required surgery and sidelined him for the rest of that season.
He played sparingly in 2024 – just 20 singles matches – as his compromised physical state prevented a full-scale comeback. His final match came in a 6-4 6-4 loss to Botic van de Zandschulp in Spain's Davis Cup quarterfinal against the Netherlands, snapping a 29-match singles winning streak in the competition dating back to 2004.
In an October post on social media, Nadal finally disclosed his retirement plans.
Mil gracias a todos
Many thanks to all
Merci beaucoup à tous
Grazie mille à tutti
谢谢大家
شكرا لكم جميعا
תודה לכולכם
Obrigado a todos
Vielen Dank euch allen
Tack alla
Хвала свима
Gràcies a tots pic.twitter.com/7yPRs7QrOi— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) October 10, 2024
“It is obviously a difficult decision, one that has taken me some time to make,” he said, in comments translated from Spanish.
“But 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.
“I leave with the absolute peace of mind of having given my best, of having made an effort in every way.”
Watching him play induced knuckle-cracking, jaw-dropping awe. Nowhere more than the Australian Open 2022 final, when he broke the three-way, 20-majors tie between himself, Federer and Djokovic to emerge at the time as the official GOAT, at least in terms of major wins, with 21.
ALONE AT THE TOP: Nadal wins record 21st major singles title
Nadal left it to this historic moment to win a Grand Slam final for the first time from two sets down. Just when we were writing it off as a rough night for Rafa, he effected a spine-chilling comeback against the hapless Medvedev to win 2-6 6-7(5) 6-4, 6-4 7-5.
This was Nadal at his most defiant. Arguably the most significant win of his career, it came a whopping 13 years after his first Australian title in 2009, at his least successful major, where he’d been jinxed by injury and fallen in four finals.
For all his epic wins and the athlete-as-warrior-trope – cold showers before every match, charging on court wielding his racquet like a Sword of Excalibur, chest-high leaps at the coin-toss – Nadal was most revealing in defeat.
Painful losses, at the Australian Open alone, included the nearly six-hour marathon 2012 final against Djokovic and the five-set classic against Federer in 2017. In both of those, the vaunted warrior had led by a break in the fifth set. Yet perhaps no other champion’s equilibrium was so unaffected after a loss. Nadal exemplified the famous Kipling quote: ‘If you can meet with triumph and disaster/And treat those two imposters just the same.’
RELATED: Nadal lays heartaches to rest with 'unforgettable day'
“Just accept,” he said in 2012 after losing the longest major final in history, at five hours 53 minutes. “I wanted to win but I am happy about how I did. I did a lot of very positive things. I played with more winners than ever. My serve worked well. The mentality and passion was there. I am not happy to lose the final, but that’s one of the losses that I am more happy [about] in my career.
“I always said is good [to] suffer, enjoy suffering, no? When you are fit, with passion for the game, when you are ready to compete, you are able to suffer and enjoy suffering, no? Today I had this feeling, and is a really good one.”
Mostly though, with over 1000 match wins, Nadal was forging victory rather than grappling with defeat.
His vicious, looping topspin – once recorded at 4,900 revolutions per minute – gave the sense that he was actually bending the dimensions of the court to his will, altering the percentages according to his game plan. Nadal stood so far back to receive serve that he was barely visible on TV screens, something no coach would advise, yet it worked for him – and spawned a trend among his younger challengers.
Another Nadal signature shot was scampering a long way across court, almost crablike, around his backhand to fire an off-forehand. An ill-advised play for most, leaving so much court exposed, but a winner for Nadal because of his speed, sense of positioning, and unerring, lefty topspin.
Nadal’s marquee rivalry with Federer – affectionately ‘Fedal’ – was the hottest ticket in the game for years and elevated tennis to front-page status. Nadal dominated the Swiss 10-4 in majors, and finished with a 24-16 winning record. Their close personal relationship was obvious when Federer chose to end his fabled career in September 2022 alongside Nadal in a Laver Cup doubles. Nadal shed courtside tears as Federer said his final goodbye.
But the Nadal-Djokovic rivalry is the most heavy-duty in the history of the men’s game. They clashed 60 bruising times, including the title rounds at all four majors, with Djokovic eking a 31-29 edge.
Nadal’s Olympic singles gold medal, which he won at the 2008 Beijing Games, was a prize that eluded both Federer and – until Paris 2024 – Djokovic, his celebrated rivals in the ultimate triumvirate that ruled the game for 20 years, with 66 majors between them.
Even among the Big Four – Federer, Djokovic and Andy Murray – Nadal stood apart.
The only lefthander, he personified southpaw wickedness despite being a natural righthander. Youngest of the four to win a breakthrough major, at 19, he was the last to marry and become a father, welcoming a son with wife Maria Francisca Perello in October 2022.
Nadal is the only one of the four never to win the year-end ATP World Finals, usually mired in physical struggles late in the season. He was also the only one of the quartet not to leave home in his teens to develop his tennis; he was blessed to have fellow-Mallorcan Carlos Moya, a Grand Slam champion and world No.1, to hit with at home.
While the other three employed a phalanx of coaches, Nadal stuck with his uncle Toni – together the greatest major-winning duo in history – and, since 2017, Moya.
His verbal trademark – the Spanish-inflected, ‘no?’ – was appended to most sentences. Even in towering victory, he could not come off as too confident. His humble nature has endeared him to millions.
Nadal blew minds as to what was possible in tennis. Dominance on the most physically taxing surface of clay, conversion to all-court mastery, and enduring through injury not just to forge a decent, if fragmented career, but one of the greatest.
Titans of tennis – or any sport – don’t come any bigger than Rafa Nadal.
Rafael Nadal: Greatest stats and milestones
- First man in Open era to win majors in three different decades (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)
- First man ranked No.1 in three different decades
- Most title wins (14) at a Grand Slam and any tournament (Roland Garros)
- Most title wins also at Barcelona (12), Monte Carlo (11), Rome (10)
- Men's-record win streak (81 matches) on any surface (clay)
- Most years (15) winning at least one major (2005-14, 2017-20, 2022)
- Among men, most consecutive years (10) winning one major (2005-14)
- Most men's major wins without dropping a set (4)
- Most men's singles wins at a major (112, Roland Garros)
- Most consecutive seasons winning an ATP title (19)
- Highest career match-winning percentage, among men (83.3)
- Highest career winning percentage on clay, among men (91.3)
- Most outdoor Masters titles (35) and ATP titles (90) in Open era
- Most wins versus No.1 players (23)
- Most consecutive weeks ranked in the ATP top 10 (since April 2005-March 2023)