It's Not Just Rafael Nadal: Retirement is in the Tennis Air as French Open Starts

FILED - 19 January 2022, Australia, Melbourne: Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal cheers after defeating Germany's Yannick Hanfmann during their men's singles tennish match at the Australian Open. Photo: Frank Molter/dpa
FILED - 19 January 2022, Australia, Melbourne: Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal cheers after defeating Germany's Yannick Hanfmann during their men's singles tennish match at the Australian Open. Photo: Frank Molter/dpa
TT

It's Not Just Rafael Nadal: Retirement is in the Tennis Air as French Open Starts

FILED - 19 January 2022, Australia, Melbourne: Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal cheers after defeating Germany's Yannick Hanfmann during their men's singles tennish match at the Australian Open. Photo: Frank Molter/dpa
FILED - 19 January 2022, Australia, Melbourne: Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal cheers after defeating Germany's Yannick Hanfmann during their men's singles tennish match at the Australian Open. Photo: Frank Molter/dpa

It’s not just Rafael Nadal who has folks wondering how many more tennis matches remain in his career.
With the French Open set to start Sunday, plenty of accomplished players are getting ready to bid adieu to the sport soon, including three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray, major finalist Danielle Collins and French fan favorite Alizé Cornet, The Associated Press reported.
“It’s not your ‘forever’ career,” said Collins, a 30-year-old from Florida who was the runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open. “There’s nobody playing until you’re 50.”
The list goes on, too: Dominic Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion and a two-time runner-up at Roland Garros, has said this will be his final season, as did Diego Schwartzman, another former member of the top 10 who once reached the French Open semifinals. Both lost in qualifying on Wednesday in Paris.
“All of these people had a great run. They’re not retiring because they were in a car accident or because the back gave out. So there is that,” said Martina Navratilova, an 18-time major champ who now works for Tennis Channel. “I think it's just a coincidence that all these great players are retiring at the same time.”
Roger Federer and Serena Williams both announced they were done in 2022, after turning 40 — Federer finished up with a Laver Cup doubles match alongside rival and friend Nadal, who turns 38 on June 3 and has indicated this is likely his last season; Williams was feted at one last US Open.
The current group also chose different ways and times to let everyone know their plans.
Nadal, a 14-time title winner at the French Open but limited by injuries the past two seasons, and Murray, who has an artificial hip and originally intended to retire several years ago, both were more vague and left a bit of wiggle room.
“I’m likely not going to play past this summer,” Murray, who turned 37 last week, said in February, leading fans to believe he wants to bow out at Wimbledon, which the Briton won in 2013 and 2016.
Cornet, a 34-year-old from France, put the word out there that the French Open will be it for her, allowing the home crowd to bid her a proper adieu. This will be the 20th consecutive year she has played at Roland Garros, where her Grand Slam debut came in 2005.
“This is where I wanted to say farewell to professional tennis,” Cornet said. “I am glad to have reached that point in my life where I can say goodbye in front of my fans and my family.”
There are also those who hold out hope of a return for some.
As Sebastian Korda, a 23-year-old American seeded 27th in Paris, said when asked about Thiem's upcoming departure: “Maybe he changes mind at the end of the year and keeps going.”
That's certainly always a possibility in any walk of life — and tennis is a sport with a rich history of comebacks. Navratilova, for example. initially retired in 1994, but later came back and wound up competing until 2006.
Collins, for one, says she is ready to move on. The 30-year-old from Florida caught the sport by surprise in January by saying 2024 would be her last season right after a loss to No. 1 Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open.
“This lifestyle is not always an easy one. I know it seems very glamorous and really ritzy-glitzy, but it really isn't like that. I don't think it's always a sustainable lifestyle with just how much traveling we're doing,” Collins said this month. “It's hard to balance your day-to-day life with your work life when you are traveling up to 30-plus weeks out of the year ... That takes a toll on people.”
She's been playing as well as ever, claiming consecutive titles at Miami and Charleston during a stretch in which she went 19-1.
That's led to questions about whether she would reconsider quitting. She insists that's not an option, in part because her choice to stop is health-related: Collins had surgery in 2021 for endometriosis, which involves abnormal tissue growth from the uterus that can cause severe pain and infertility. She's now eager to start a family.
“People want to see me playing longer. I think people feel bad about my health stuff ... Everybody has different ways of ending their professional journey. For me, I want to go out playing my best tennis, because I certainly wouldn't want to go out playing my worst tennis,” Collins said. “It's important for me to feel like, ‘OK, I got everything I could out of myself as an athlete,' and end on a positive note, rather than being, like: 'Oh, God. What happened?’”



Euro 2024: Belgium Face Slovakia to Open Group E in Clash of Italian Coaches

 Belgium's midfielder #07 Kevin De Bruyne takes part in a MD-1 training session during the UEFA Euro 2024 football Championship, at the team base camp in Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, on June 16, 2024, on the eve of their first group match against Slovakia. (AFP)
Belgium's midfielder #07 Kevin De Bruyne takes part in a MD-1 training session during the UEFA Euro 2024 football Championship, at the team base camp in Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, on June 16, 2024, on the eve of their first group match against Slovakia. (AFP)
TT

Euro 2024: Belgium Face Slovakia to Open Group E in Clash of Italian Coaches

 Belgium's midfielder #07 Kevin De Bruyne takes part in a MD-1 training session during the UEFA Euro 2024 football Championship, at the team base camp in Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, on June 16, 2024, on the eve of their first group match against Slovakia. (AFP)
Belgium's midfielder #07 Kevin De Bruyne takes part in a MD-1 training session during the UEFA Euro 2024 football Championship, at the team base camp in Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, on June 16, 2024, on the eve of their first group match against Slovakia. (AFP)

Belgium and Kevin De Bruyne face Slovakia to start their European Championship program on Monday in Group E. Also in the group are Romania and Ukraine. Kickoff in Frankfurt is at 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT). Here’s what to know about the match.

Match facts:

— There is a strong Italian influence on the game. Slovakia coach Francesco Calzona is Italian, and was the interim coach since February at Napoli where he had been an assistant to Mauricio Sarri. Belgium’s 38-year-old coach Domenico Tedesco was born in Italy though is a citizen of Germany having grown up there.

— Slovakia is at its third straight Euro as an independent nation, all since the tournament was expanded to 24 teams. Slovakia reached the round of 16 in 2016 losing 3-0 to Germany. As half of the former Czechoslovakia it won the 1976 title.

— Belgium was the beaten finalist in 1980, losing to West Germany.

— The teams never met in a competitive game and last played a friendly against each other 11 years ago. A Belgium team featuring a 21-year-old De Bruyne beat Slovakia 2-1 in Brugge.

Team news:

— Belgium left arguably the world’s best goalkeeper at home. That’s despite Thibaut Courtois proving his fitness helping Real Madrid win the Champions League final. Courtois has been in dispute with Tedesco reportedly after not getting the captaincy for a game last year.

— Belgium has injuries in defense with doubts over Axel Witsel. Veteran Jan Vertonghen and Arthur Theate are both expected to be unavailable. Zeno Debast, just 20, and Maxim De Cuyper could get their chance.

— Slovakia’s lineup could include Peter Pekarík and Juraj Kucka. At age 37 they are Slovakia’s oldest ever players. They also are the last remaining members of the 2010 World Cup squad that beat and eliminated defending champion Italy in the group stage.

By the numbers:

— Belgium is still ranked No. 3 by FIFA despite not advancing out of its group at the 2022 World Cup. Belgium has a seven-year run in the top five, including atop the ranking from 2018 through 2021. Slovakia is No. 48.

— Romelu Lukaku’s record 85 goals for Belgium, aged just 31, is more than the top three Slovakia scorers combined since it became an independent soccer nation in 1994. Marek Hamsik, who retired last year and is now an assistant coach, leads with 26.

— Belgium captain De Bruyne made his 100th appearance for the Red Devils last week, scoring in a 2-0 warmup win against Montenegro.

— Slovakia gave up the fastest goal in the history of men's international soccer in March. It took just six seconds for Austria's Christoph Baumgartner to dribble the ball direct from the center spot and shoot past goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.

What they’re saying:

— “Belgium has a lot of fantastic individuals. Take De Bruyne, (Jérémy) Doku, Lukaku, (Leandro) Trossard, all of them are huge players. Belgium has two or three top players playing in top clubs in each position.” — Slovakia midfielder Stanislav Lobotka

— “Since the 2022 World Cup, he has had to build a completely new team with a lot of younger players, so everything had to be adjusted to his philosophy of playing.” — Kevin De Bruyne on coach Domenico Tedesco