The Spaniard will finally hang up his racket next month after a sparkling career that featured one of the sport's defining rivalries
The Spaniard will finally hang up his racket next month after a sparkling career that featured one of the sport's defining rivalrieshis 22 grand slam titlestitles and 112 match wins at Roland Garros are unmatched at a single grand slam. Only three men have ever beaten him there. No one, not even 10-time Australian Open champion Djokovic, has dominated one single tournament in the same way, and it is hard to imagine anyone ever will again.
“I want to thank the entire tennis industry, all the people involved in this sport, my longtime colleagues, especially my great rivals,” Nadal said. The Serbo-Spanish head-to-head is the most played of the Open era in men’s tennis at 60. Only the 80 matches Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova played against one another tops it.
It is a tournament that, wherever possible, he has adored almost as much as the French Open, often valuing national pride over private endeavour, a shared value with Djokovic that is anachronistic: in an increasingly crowded tennis calendar, the Davis Cup is very much opt-in rather than opt-out for most players.alongside him in Team Spain next month but how often he plays after his idol is no longer involved remains to be seen.
Nadal, ranked 158 in the world at present, will play as Spain’s No 2, making him a fierce opponent for the likes of Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarters or perhaps Denis Shapovalov in the semis.
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