SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This November tennis star Rafael Nadal will play in the Davis Cup, and then that's it. The Spaniard announced his retirement today with a video posted on X.
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RAFAEL NADAL: (Speaking Spanish).
DETROW: "The reality is that it has been some difficult years, these last two especially," he says, and then elaborates, sharing that he feels he hasn't been able to play without limitations. Nadal will exit the game as one of the best male tennis players of all time. So to look back on his incredible career, we are joined now by Ava Wallace. She covers sports for the Washington Post. Welcome.
AVA WALLACE: Thank you for having me.
DETROW: Let's start with today's news. Nadal makes this announcement with this video. It's about five minutes long. It was reflective, full of memories. What stood out to you from it?
WALLACE: It was interesting just kind of what you pointed out there where he said he hasn't been able to play without limitations. And that's really the Rafael Nadal we've seen for the past two years. You know, he had hip surgery in 2023. He's played a couple of big matches even this year, but he's clearly been struggling with injury. And this was something that people have almost been waiting for for a while. Nadal, of course, is famous for his punishing style of play. That's - it's kind of all out all the time. And everyone said, you know, it's really hard to keep up that kind of style of play when you're in your late 30s. He's 38. And physically, it just seems like he can't keep going.
DETROW: What is the top line of his career? What are the images, the accomplishments that people are going to be talking about in decades?
WALLACE: Well, the top line of his career is definitely the 14 French Open...
DETROW: Yeah.
WALLACE: ...Titles that he's won that no man or woman has ever matched. But I think the thing that I will think of most about Nadal is just his fight. And that's why it's kind of a little bit heartbreaking for his career to end this way, in injuries - is because it's hard to imagine Rafael Nadal succumbing to anything or anyone.
DETROW: He had his accomplishments like the French Open in particular, but I feel like this was an era where he was always talked about in conversation with Roger Federer, with Novak Djokovic. How did the mix of superstars that Nadal was always battling against enhance his reputation?
WALLACE: Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it definitely defined his career as much as he helped define Roger Federer's career. And one of the images that I thought of this morning after I watched that video that he posted on X was of him and Roger Federer sitting in London in 2022 after Federer had retired. And they were just sobbing, watching Roger Federer's career highlights together at his last match, I think because they both knew it really was the end of an era. They played such fantastic matches. The 2008 Wimbledon final will, of course, go down as kind of one of the greatest matches ever that the sport's seen. Nadal won that final.
But they didn't just define each other through their rivalry, but they also had such a wonderful contrast in styles. They said Nadal was so known for kind of his muscle and his speed and his all-out play, and Federer was so elegant and graceful. And it was really fun as a tennis fan to kind of get to pick your side or watch them clash time and again.
DETROW: Yeah. How would you describe what it was about Nadal that made him so amazing on the clay, especially in the French Opens?
WALLACE: It was fun to watch him fight for every single point like it was his last. Not a lot of tennis players did that. There's so much gamesmanship in tennis and, you know, especially at Grand Slams, when there are five-set matches. And it's really about time management and managing your physical health as much as it is going for great shots. And really, nobody else played like him, played every single point like it was the final point in a five-set match.
DETROW: Yeah. Old for tennis is always cartoonishly young for everyone else.
WALLACE: Yeah.
DETROW: But given the typical high-level tennis career over the years, he's old for most sports. You know, he's 38 years old but, again, pretty young guy - any sense what the next stages look like for somebody like Rafael Nadal, somebody who's been a global superstar for so long and is now turning the page?
WALLACE: Yeah. I think that's also what was really interesting about waiting for Nadal's retirement, as we have been - is he's the third one of kind of the Big Four, if you're counting Andy Murray in that group alongside Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. So he's No. 3 to retire. I think he was the hardest one for me to imagine the end of his career just because he plays so passionately, and it kind of felt a little bit like he was almost struggling to let go of the game. So...
DETROW: Yeah.
WALLACE: I don't know what's next for Rafael Nadal. He does have a foundation. He could get involved with a bunch of different charity tournaments or things like Federer has done, but I'm interested to see what's next from him.
DETROW: Ava Wallace, sports reporter for the Washington Post. Thanks so much for joining us.
WALLACE: Thank you.
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