Rafael Nadal is the name on every tennis fan’s lips at the moment, naturally.
After all, he shocked the world last week with some news that everyone expected, but nobody wanted to hear.
Nadal revealed he would be retiring from tennis.
A sad but inevitable day, the Davis Cup Finals in November will officially mark his last-ever match.
And with this revelation, people are flooding to relive his legendary career.
The day that Rafael Nadal changed opinions about him
Speaking on her podcast, Rennae Stubbs would offer her big Rafael Nadal story, detailing the exact moment when her opinion on the 38-year-old shifted and why.
She revealed: ‘When he won his last Australian Open down two sets to love, 2-3, 0-40 on serve. It is to me the epitome of his career and what anyone needs to understand about adversity and how to be a champion. In my brain I am watching this match thinking it’s over. He looked like he was going to die, he was sweating more than I have ever seen, he was fatigued. Medvedev was arguably the best player on the hard court, he has just won the US Open. He came in with all this confidence. It looked like there was no way he is losing this match.
‘He wins the point at 0-40 and he goes ‘Vamos’. I thought only this guy would let everyone in the crowd and TV know I am still going to try and win this match. But I was like dude, you are getting killed. And he wins the game, it might have been the most important game in his career, he comes back, wins the set, wins the fourth set and gets up 5-4 in the fifth.
‘I am watching this going I cannot believe he is going to serve for the match and then he plays a horrific game. He double faults twice in the game. Turns around, takes the ball out of his pocket, shakes his head a little bit and then wins the next game and wins the match.
‘It was in the post-match interview which changed me and my thinking towards him. He said ‘Yes, when I lost the game at 5-4 it was terrible’. He said in his own mind he said I am going to lose another Australian Open up a break in the fifth. I said to myself in that moment he has to beat me now. I am going to give 100 per cent still and see what happens. Medvedev then played a horrible game and sure enough, Rafa wins.
‘But my first thought when I saw that transcript was to say even Rafa is negative, even he thinks negatively, even he doubts he can do it, even he thinks about the stuff that happened seven years ago. He still has that scar tissue. Every tennis player has scar tissue but he says I am not going to give into it or walk away from the challenge. I thought that is the lesson for every kid – that everyone thinks negatively but it’s how you respond to it.’
Rafael Nadal’s injury record throughout his career
Few as legendary as Nadal have suffered with injuries like he did throughout a stunning career, with only Andy Murray of the same generation there to rival him.
It’s a testament to his brilliance, and arguable status as the GOAT, that he missed 18 Grand Slams yet still won 22. Novak Djokovic, for comparison, has missed just three.
The Spaniard’s first major injury came in 2003, with an elbow issue that postponed his debut at Roland Garros.
2004 then saw him suffer a stress fracture in his ankle, worsened the following year by another foot injury.
There was a spell where he then avoided any major setbacks, before tendonitis began to strike in 2009.
This reared its ugly head again in 2012, but not before a knee injury saw him retire from Wimbledon.
Later in his career came the wrist and back injuries, before suffering an abdominal tear in 2022 and a hip injury in 2023.
The punishment Nadal’s body has been through is ridiculous, but only adds to his unrivalled legacy.
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