Rafael Nadal: Farewell to the ‘King of Clay’

With tears in his eyes, Rafael Nadal said goodbye to professional tennis on Tuesday.

In a message to his adoring fans, one of the all-time greatest athletes said he just wanted to be celebrated for something so simple.

“I just want to be remembered as a good person and a kid that followed their dreams and achieved more than what I’ve ever dreamed,” the Spanish great modestly said after playing in his final match.

Despite Nadal and Spain having just been shockingly ousted from the Davis Cup by the Netherlands, the 38-year-old appeared at peace with his decision to walk away from a trophy-laden career while listening to his peers praise him in a tribute video.

“It was such a privilege to play with you but especially against you,” Roger Federer said. “Congratulations on the most incredible career.”

Novak Djokovic added, “Your tenacity, your fighting spirit, the energy that you brought, the power, is something that will be studied and something that will be transferred to many, many generations that are coming up.

“I’ve been very honored and thrilled to be called your rival.”

Serena Williams admitted, “You inspired me to have so many wins – to keep going – to fight – to get better – to improve – to basically play like you.”

The accolades could have continued for hours.

As he walked off the court, the tennis great blew kisses to the crowd and hugged his Spanish teammates before waving goodbye.

Full circle moment

Nadal’s singular career began in 2001, when he turned professional at the age of just 14.

It wasn’t until April 2002, when Nadal was two months shy of his 16th birthday, that he recorded the first ATP Tour win of his career, which fittingly came on his home island of Mallorca.

Nadal then propelled himself from world No. 199 to No. 49 in 2003, winning Challenger titles and matches at Masters 1000 events, as well as recording his first two wins over top 10 opponents – including his current coach, Carlos Moyá.

The following year would be Nadal’s breakthrough on tour and cement his place as a Spanish hero.

He won the first ATP singles title of his career at the Pokrom Open and then, at just 18 years of age, beat world No. 2 Andy Roddick in the final of the Davis Cup on home soil to help Spain win the title for only the second time in history.

It is fitting that Nadal bade farewell to tennis on the stage that helped make him in Spain.

That year, 2003, there was also the small matter of a first meeting with Federer, a straight sets win for Nadal at the Miami Open that surely nobody predicted would be the beginning of arguably tennis’ greatest rivalry.

“All that buzz I’d been hearing about you — about this amazing young player from Mallorca, a generational talent, probably going to win a major someday — it wasn’t just hype,” Federer wrote of that match in his farewell message to Nadal.

But 2004 was the year Nadal truly shot to stardom and became a household name.

He won 24 straight matches during the clay court season, breaking Andre Agassi’s Open Era record for most consecutive victories by a teenager, culminating in his first French Open title in his tournament debut.

He may not quite have been the King of Clay just yet, but his game on the red stuff was already looking princely.

Nadal became the first male teenager to win a grand slam since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open and climbed to a career high No. 3 in the world.

It was the first of four straight French Open titles, before he was stunned by Robin Söderling in the fourth round in 2009 for his first ever defeat at Roland Garros.

That loss would be the first of just three that Nadal suffered at the French Open, though he had to retire injured ahead of his third-round match in 2016, giving him a 112-3 record on the Parisian clay, a win rate of 97.39%.

“On clay, it felt like I was stepping into your backyard, and you made me work harder than I ever thought I could just to hold my ground,” Federer wrote.

“You made me reimagine my game – even going so far as to change the size of my racquet head, hoping for any edge.”

Greatest match ever?

Nadal’s relentless brilliance on clay redefined what it means to dominate a surface.

The Spaniard finished his career with 14 French Open titles, two Australian Opens, two Wimbledon titles and four US Opens for a total of 22 grand slams, second all-time behind only Djokovic.

“I’ve been able to compete against him a couple of times, get wins over him which, again, you tell the little kid that’s watching him on TV winning 14 Roland Garros in a row, it’s pretty special,” world No. 9 Alex de Minaur told CNN Sport.

“All those experiences of sharing the court with him is something I’ll take with me for a very long time and I’ll pass it on to generations to come.”

Though grass was considered Nadal’s weakest of the three grand slam surfaces, it was on Wimbledon’s Centre Court that he enjoyed arguably his most iconic moment.

In the fading late-evening summer light, Nadal finally toppled Federer in 2008 and ended the Swiss’ five-year winning run at Wimbledon in a match that spanned almost seven hours from start to finish due to rain delays.

That was the last year Wimbledon was played without a roof on Centre Court, putting an end to matches being interrupted by dramatic hours-long delays.

Federer beat Nadal in the final in 2006 and 2007, but the Spaniard had demolished Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 in the French Open final a month earlier.

In practical darkness on Centre Court, Nadal eventually won 9-7 in the fifth set. It is considered by many to be the greatest tennis match of all time.

“I didn’t watch a lot of tennis growing up but even I was watching Rafa,” ATP Finals runner-up Taylor Fritz told CNN Sport recently.

“I remember the Wimbledon final with him and Fed and it’s insane that I was a little kid – not like a teenager – I was a little kid watching him play and then we grew up and have gotten the chance to play against him.

“That’s something that’s so special and there’s only a couple of players that are like that. It’s really kind of crazy when you get the chance to play against him.”

In August 2008, Nadal finally became world No. 1 for the first time, a position he would hold for a total of 209 weeks throughout his career.

Among his many career achievements, Nadal became just the second man to achieve the career singles ‘Golden Slam’ in 2010 – winning all four grand slams and Olympic gold – and helped Spain win four Davis Cup titles.

He also won Olympic doubles gold in 2016 and amassed a total of 92 ATP titles.

Nadal developed a reputation as one of the most tenacious players tennis has seen, chasing down every ball with fierce determination, even those that many other players would have given up as lost causes.

But the question is frequently asked as to whether Nadal’s aggressive style of play that made him so successful has in some way contributed to his injury problems.

Injuries

With the number of injuries Nadal has suffered over the course of his career, it’s easy to ask: ‘What if?’

What if he hadn’t missed 11 grand slams due to various ailments? What if his body hadn’t failed him numerous times throughout his career?

How many grand slams would Nadal have now? How many more records would he have broken?

But Nadal never let the injuries define his career; though, of course, they played a big part. Instead, his career has largely been defined by his response to them: his tenacity, his will to win, and his unrelenting desire to come back time and again – and return to the top.

In the end, however, it proved to be one injury too many for his 38-year-old body to recover from – though his mind was evidently still as willing as ever, with Nadal often expressing his desire to return again next year.

But the injuries just mean the numbers and records Nadal has accumulated over his career are all the more remarkable.