First to arrive on the tennis scene was Switzerland’s Roger Federer (1998, age 17), followed by Spain’s Rafael Nadal (2001, age 15) and then Serbia’s Novak Djokovic (2003, age 16). They were called The Big Three.
Federer retired in 2022. Nadal has just announced his retirement. Djokovic, currently 37 years old, isn’t saying.
Leftie Rafael Nadal burst onto the pro circuit as a teenager, just 3 years after Roger Federer played his first ATP tournament. The two would eventually play each other 40 times, with Nadal winning 24 times against Roger.
Federer was suave and sophisticated. Nadal was thunderous, described by Federer as being “like a tiger in a cage” when on court. They were perfect rivals, great for fans, sponsors and broadcasters.
The 2008 Wimbledon final was, without doubt, their penultimate match. Lasting almost 5 hours, including 2 rain delays, Nadal (who performed better on clay) defeated Federer who had been victorious on Wimbledon’s grass courts for the previous 5 years. Considered, by many, to be the greatest tennis match ever, the game became the topic of a riveting documentary film about these two style and character-opposite rivals.
“Rivalry makes you a better player.” (Chris Evert, former American tennis player with 18 Grand Slam singles titles to her name)
It took Nadal 4 years to win his first major, winning the Roland Garros tournament at his first attempt. His last win was on the same court in 2022.
In the end, Nadal earned 2 Olympic gold medals and 22 Grand Slam singles titles (2 more than Federer, 2 less than Djokovic), 14 of them in Paris. Djokovic has 24 Grand Slam singles titles to his name, and won his first gold medal at this year’s Paris Olympics – earning a career Golden Slam (also achieved by Nadal in 2008, elusive to Federer).
Suffering from a number of injuries over the years, including a rare chronic foot condition (Muller-Weiss syndrome), it was Nadal’s hip flexor (iliopsoas muscle) injury that was his demise.
His final tournament will be this year’s Davis Cup (aka The World Cup of Tennis) from November 19-24 in Malaga, Spain, where he will play alongside Carlos Alcaraz and other members of the Spanish national team. The last hurrah of Nadal’s amazing career, don’t expect to find any available seats.
Incredibly humble, yet with a net worth of $225 million, in typical Spanish family tradition Rafa will soon have more time to spend with his wife, Mery "Xisxa" Perelló, and their 2 year old son (Rafael).
Alcaraz will be the next Spaniard to watch moving forward. We had a sneak preview of the changing of the guard in Las Vegas in March.
Like Nadal, Carlos started playing tennis at age 4. At only 21 years old, he has already won the US Open (2022), Wimbledon (2023, 2024), the French Open (2024) and an Olympic silver medal. Expect to see passionate, expressive tennis from this Spanish phenom for many years to come.
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