America’s tennis star
Taylor Fritz has expressed his
surprise about legendary
Rafael Nadal’s decision not to retire after the French
Open. The 38-year-old is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history
of men’s tennis in the singles category in the Open era, having won as many as
22 Grand Slam titles.
Nadal is famous as a ‘King of Clay’, largely because 14 of his
22 major titles came while playing at the Roland Garros. The former world
number recently announced his retirement in a video posted on social media.
Nadal, in that video, revealed that he will be taking the court one last time
to play at the highest level during the umping quarterfinals of the Davis Cup. The
news is not a surprising one as the 22-time Grand Slam winner, who has
struggled with fitness concerns towards the later stages of his illustrious
career, already announced last year that the 2024 season would be his last at
the highest level.
Current world number seven Fritz, who became the first
player in 18 years to play in the final of the US Open recently, has been quoted
in a report where he expressed surprise about Nadal’s decision not to retire right
after the French Open 2024. The Spaniard played at the Roland Garros this year,
where he was knocked out after losing in the first round to Germany’s Alexander
Zverev in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.
"Yeah, I think a lot of people saw a retirement
announcement coming,” he said. “I think I was very surprised to see it's at
Davis Cup, you know. I think a lot of people would have expected French Open,
or Madrid, Barcelona, something like that. Obviously he's tried for a long time
to get healthy, and, you know, I think the announcement coming now, and the
retirement coming at Davis Cup just shows he's tried for a very long time to
play, and this is going to be it.”