 "Rafael Nadal ends his glittering tennis career with 22 Grand Slam titles, finishing behind Novak Djokovic with 24 Grand Slam titles. Reuters")
Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal called time on his playing career, announcing on Thursday that the Davis Cup Finals in November would be his last. Nadal has enjoyed a trophy-laden tennis career, winning 22 Grand Slams that includes 14 French Open titles —A record number.
Nadal was only 15 years old when he turned pro in 2001. He made his ATP Tour debut in April 2002, and has since gone onto become one of the legends of the game. Along with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, Nadal was part of the Big Three that dominated world tennis for more than a decade.
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As the 38 year-old calls it a day, we take a look at his career in numbers:
—Rafael Nadal finishes his tennis career with 22 Grand Slam titles, only behind Novak Djokovic who has 24 Grand Slam victories. Roger Federer ended his career with 20 Grand Slams.
—The former World No 1 ends his career with a win-loss record of 1,080-227 across all competitions in 22 years.
—Nadal played 40 matches against Roger Federer, winning 24 matches and losing 16 against the Swiss. He has played 60 matches against Novak Djokovic, with Serbian winning 31 compared to Nadal’s 29 wins.
—Nadal earned a whopping prize money of $134,946,100 during his 22-year playing career.
—Rafael Nadal, the King of Clay, has won a record 14 French Open titles. His first title victory at Roland Garros came in 2005, and his last in 2022. Nadal also has an incredible 112-4 win-loss record at the French Open.
—In 2010, Nadal became the youngest player to win a career Grand Slam when he clinched the US Open, aged 24 years old.
—Rafael Nadal spent 209 weeks as World No 1 in the ATP rankings. He is in sixth place when it comes to men’s players having spent most weeks as World No 1. Novak Djokovic (428 weeks) holds that record ahead of Roger Federer (310 weeks).
—The Manacor-born athlete has also spent 912 consecutive weeks in the top 10 of ATP rankings, the most by any player. He is ahead of Jimmy Connors (788 weeks) and Roger Federer (734 weeks) on this list.
—The Olympic gold medallist has won 92 ATP singles titles, out of which he won 63 titles on clay courts.
—Nadal also set the record of winning 81 consecutive matches on clay, between 2005 and 2007.
—Nadal has beaten World No 1 players the most times. In total, he has 23 wins against World No 1 players, getting the better of Federer 13 times and Djokovic on 10 occasions.