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Tennis legend Rafael Nadal announces retirement at age 38

Oct 10, 2024, 7:42am EDT
Spain’s Rafael Nadal bites the trophy to celebrate winning the men’s singles final against Norway’s Casper Ruud in 2022
Yves Herman/File Photo/Reuters
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Rafael Nadal on Thursday announced his retirement from professional tennis after the Davis Cup finals in November, ending a 23-year career that saw him win 22 Grand Slam titles and two Olympic golds.

The 38-year-old is second in the men’s all-time list for number of wins, after Serbian Novak Djokovic.

“The reality is that it has been some difficult years, these two especially. I don’t think I have been able to play without limitations,” Nadal said in a video posted on social media. “It is obviously a difficult decision, one that takes me some time to make. But in this life, everything has a beginning and an end.”

In the last few years, Nadal has suffered several injuries that caused him to sit out a number of tournaments, but repeated he would keep playing “as long as his body let him,” the BBC noted. After a “chastening” defeat against Djokovic at the Paris Olympics this summer, Nadal may have decided the time was right to make his exit.

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