Nadal's place in tennis history etched in clay

LONDON : When a teenaged Rafa Nadal bounced in to Roland Garros in pirate pants and sleeveless shirt in May 2005 before scything through the draw, few realised it marked the start of an unprecedented era of sporting domination.

Nearly two decades later, and with 22 Grand Slam titles amongst his glittering bounty, the Spaniard has announced he will retire after the Davis Cup Finals in November.

The 38-year-old Mallorcan's unsurprising decision comes two years after his great rival Roger Federer called time on his golden career and in the same year that another member of the big four, Andy Murray, hung up his racket.

Only Novak Djokovic of a quartet that took tennis to unthinkable heights remains and with a men's record 24 Grand Slam titles to his name, the Serb's fans insist the statistics make him the greatest of all time.

The GOAT argument will run and run, but what cannot be disputed is that Nadal will always be the 'King of Clay'.

After dispatching Argentina's Mariano Puerta in 2005 for his first Grand Slam title, Nadal became virtually unbeatable on what is widely-regarded as the toughest surface in the sport.

His numbers on the red dirt are simply mind-boggling.

Nadal won a total of 14 French Open titles, the most by any player at a single Grand Slam. Of the 116 matches he played at the tournament he won 112 of them, earning $26 million in prize money in the process.

Only three players have beaten him at the French Open. Robin Soderling managed it in 2009 when Nadal was hampered by a knee injury and Djokovic twice beat him, in 2015 when Nadal was again struggling physically, and in 2021.

His last French Open match was this year's first-round defeat by Germany's Alexander Zverev shortly after returning from nearly a year away