“Himposseeble!” When 19-year-old Rafael Nadal caused an “earthquake in Paris”.

“You were a damn good warrior”: Voices and reactions to Nadal’s end to his career

What had been apparent for a long, long time became a certainty on October 10, 2024. Almost 20 years after his first triumph in Paris, Rafael Nadal let the sports world know that it was over.

An end to a unique career in which the now 38-year-old Spaniard won 92 titles, 22 of them at Grand Slam tournaments, including 14 at the French Open. The glorious clay court tournament in Paris will forever be associated with Nadal’s name, whose record could be one for the ages.

In the past two years, Nadal suffered from one injury to the next, tournament cancellation after tournament cancellation. His resignation was actually long overdue.

On the other hand, Nadal would not have become one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he would not have tried against all odds and far beyond the pain threshold to turn back time and attack again. But like great victories, painful defeats were also part of his career. He has now lost the last battle against his body.

And like everything else in his career, he acknowledged the fact with the inherent humility that made him so popular around the world: “I think this is the right time to end a career that has been long and much more successful than I ever imagined I hoped for.”

Where is it all? Of course in Paris. In the summer of 2005. We look back at Nadal’s first really big triumph.

The following article was originally published in May 2015 and is now republished in a slightly revised version.