By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Rafael Nadal’s almost unmatched tennis career was born at Roland Garros and has been largely defined by Roland Garros, but the 2024 edition of the tournament will likely not be where Nadal’s career will come to a close.
When Nadal announced that the 2024 season would likely be his last on tour, many wisely predicted that he would play his final match at the French Championships, the tournament that he has won an incredible 14 times – more than double the number of times that six-time champion Bjorn Borg won the title. Many great champions have a hard time letting go of their competitive careers and Nadal himself was cagey and evasive when confronted in conversations that the 2024 French Open would be his final event. As author and former New York Times tennis writer Christopher Clarey wrote in his Substack email article, Nadal “has been resisting the word retirement like it is a break point.” Earlier this year, the Laver Cup even announced that Nadal would be a member of Team Europe in its September event, perhaps indicating that Nadal would have a farewell in the team event like his greatest rival Roger Federer did in 2022.
In his post-match comments after his straight-sets first-round loss to No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev, Nadal seemed determined to return to Paris this summer to his favorite clay courts and compete for Spain in the Olympic Games. The International Tennis Federation, which oversees the Olympic tennis competition, confirmed via a social post on X (formerly Twitter) that Nadal’s ATP protected ranking of No. 9 could be used to gain entry into the Olympic Games, also played at Roland Garros. He could also be paired in doubles with his Spanish heir apparent Carlos Alcaraz. When asked if would consider another trip to play at Wimbledon in July, Nadal begged off saying that playing on the grass courts at the All England Club would not be wise if he wanted to play again on the clay at the Olympic Games.
So Nadal’s first-round loss to Zverev looks only to be the closing bookend to his career at the French Championships, which he won in his first visit there in 2005 as a 19-year-old. As Clarey wrote, “Nadal’s straight-set defeat to Alexander Zverev at the French Open did not quite feel like a full-circle moment….But full circle would also imply the end, and though the understandable assumption has been that this is Nadal’s farewell tour it is beginning to seem much more like a warmup act for the farewell tour.” And Clarey, perhaps more than anybody outside of Nadal’s family and his close inner circle, would know best as he has meticulously written and researched Nadal for his upcoming book “The Warrior.”
We will see him again.
Oh, and did we mention lucrative exhibition matches against Roger Federer as early as 2025???
