Rafael Nadal is getting set to retire from professional tennis after one last event: He will be part of Spain's team at the Davis Cup finals that start Tuesday in front of a home crowd in Malaga.
The 38-year-old Nadal has been on tour for more than 20 years and is the second member of the so-called Big Three of men´s tennis to stop playing. Roger Federer announced his departure in 2022, while Novak Djokovic is still near the top of the game.
"It is obviously a difficult decision, one that has taken me some time to make. But in this life, everything has a beginning and an end," Nadal said. "And I think it is the appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined."
It's not entirely clear when Nadal's last match will come, in large part because the Davis Cup is a team event and what's now known as the "Final 8" begins at the quarterfinal stage. Spain will get things started against the Netherlands on Tuesday. Win that, and the Spaniards would advance to the semifinals Friday against Canada or Germany (who meet each other Wednesday). The other quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday: the United States vs. Australia, and defending champion Italy vs. Argentina. The championship round will be Sunday. There are two matches in singles and one in doubles in each matchup; the first country to win twice progresses. The other wild card in all of this: No one knows for sure whether Nadal will be chosen by Spain's captain, David Ferrer, to play singles, doubles, both or - theoretically possible, if unlikely - neither.
Nadal is joined on Spain´s roster by four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz, Roberto Bautista Agut, Pedro Martinez and Marcel Granollers.
The biggest reason he is ready to move on is that he has been bothered by a series of injuries, including a painful foot, abdominal muscle problems and a hip issue that required surgery last season. "The reality is that it has been some difficult years, these last two especially," Nadal said. "I don´t think I have been able to play without limitations."
Nadal has not played much at all each of the last two seasons due to injuries; he's just 12-7 in 2024. His most recent official competition anywhere came in early August at the Paris Olympics, where he lost to his longtime rival - and eventual gold medalist - Djokovic in the second round of singles, and reached the doubles quarterfinals alongside Alcaraz before bowing out. Nadal also played two exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia last month.
Nadal finishes with 22 Grand Slam singles titles, behind only Djokovic's 24 among men in the history of tennis, and ahead of Federer's 20. The breakdown: 14 at the French Open, four at the US Open, two at Wimbledon, two at the Australian Open. Nadal's last major championship came in Paris in 2022, when he needed nerve-numbing injections in his left foot.
Nadal has been a part of Spain's team at some stage of the Davis Cup during five years when the country won the title - in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2019. That first title came after a teenage Nadal defeated then-No. 2-ranked Andy Roddick as Spain got past the US. "I am very excited that my last tournament will be the final of the Davis Cup and representing my country," Nadal said. "I think I´ve come full circle, because one of my first great joys as a professional tennis player was the Davis Cup final in Seville in 2004."
