Rafael Nadal is retiring from professional tennis at age 38, he announced Thursday, after winning 22 Grand Slam titles — 14 at the French Open — during an unprecedented era he shared with rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Nadal has competed infrequently the past two seasons because of injuries and said next month’s Davis Cup finals will mark his farewell to the sport. He had hip surgery in 2023 and entered just two of the past eight major tournaments.

“The reality is that it has been some difficult years, these last two, especially. I don’t think I have been able to play without limitations,” Nadal said in a video message. “It is obviously a difficult decision, one that has taken me some time to make. But in this life, everything has a beginning and an end.”

Nadal’s unrelenting, physical style of play — every point pursued as though it were his last, sprinting and sliding into place for that high-bouncing bullwhip of a lefty forehand — made him one of the greats of the game and the unquestioned King of Clay.

His record 14 French Open championships are more than anyone, man or woman, won at any one of the four major tournaments, a dominance celebrated by a statue of Nadal near the main entrance to the grounds of Roland Garros and in the shadow of its main stadium, Court Philippe Chatrier.

In a result that symbolized where things stood for his body, and career, he exited in the French Open first round this year, a straight-set loss to eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev.

Nadal returned to that site in Paris for the Summer Olympics, where he lost to old rival Djokovic in the second round of singles and reached the quarterfinals of men’s doubles with Carlos Alcaraz. Nadal hasn’t played since. His goodbye will also come while representing Spain in the Davis Cup at Malaga.

“Your legacy won’t be matched,” Alcaraz, who is widely seen as Nadal’s heir in Spanish tennis, said Thursday. “I have enjoyed you and I will miss you very much when you retire after the Davis Cup.”

In addition to his French Open triumphs, Nadal won four trophies at the U.S. Open and two apiece at Wimbledon and the Australian Open, giving him a career Grand Slam.

“It is the appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined,” Nadal said.

His last pair of major titles arrived in 2022, at Melbourne and Paris, pushing him ahead of Federer, who held the men’s record of 20 Grand Slam titles when he announced his retirement at age 41. Federer bid adieu in late 2022 by teaming with Nadal in a doubles match at the Laver Cup.

Both have since been surpassed by Djokovic, 37, who is up to 24 majors.

WNBA Finals to be best-of-7 next year

The WNBA will expand its Finals next year to a best-of-7 format, the league announced.

The league currently has a best-of-5 semifinals and finals in its playoffs with a best-of-3 first round.

“This will give our fans a championship series format that they are accustomed to seeing in other sports,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said before Game 1 of the Finals.

Engelbert said the better seeded teams will host the first, second, fifth and seventh games. The league also will be changing the opening round to give the lower seeded team at least one home game. The higher seeded team will host Game 1, and 3 if it’s necessary. Currently the first round has the first two games at the better seeded team. All four of the first-round series were sweeps this year.

• Danny Green, the sharpshooting guard who won an NCAA championship at North Carolina before helping three different franchises win NBA titles, announced his retirement as a player.

Green won NBA titles with San Antonio in 2014, Toronto in 2019 and the Lakers in 2020, and was a starter on all three of those clubs. He averaged 8.7 points over parts of 15 pro seasons.

Green retires with 1,577 3-pointers, 43rd-most in NBA history. He’s one of only 12 players to make that many 3-pointers and shoot at least 40% from beyond the arc.

Svensson fires 60 for lead at Black Desert

Adam Svensson made a 35-foot eagle putt he thought he had missed and closed with a birdie from the bunker for a career-best 11-under 60, giving him a two-shot lead in the Black Desert Championship as the PGA Tour returned to Utah for the first time in 61 years.

Black Desert Resort had a gorgeous day to make its debut with a Tom Weiskopf design cut through an ancient field of black lava and surrounded by the red rock mountains some 30 miles from Zion National Park. Svensson and so many others made short work of the course in ideal conditions.

Henrik Norlander hit all 14 fairways and all 18 greens in posting his career-low of 62. He was joined by Korn Ferry Tour grad Matt McCarty, who had an eagle on the reachable par-4 fifth hole.

• Sei Young Kim, looking for her first victory this season, opened with a 10-under 62 to lead the first round of the Buick LPGA Shanghai tournament.

Celine Boutier of France was two shots behind with a 64, and American Lucy Li was three back with a 65.

• A 16-year-old Ukrainian playing for just the fifth time on the DP World Tour said he will continue his routine of playing table tennis and watching Netflix in his quest to stay on the leaderboard at the French Open near Paris.

Lev Grinberg shot 5-under 66 and was in a tie for fourth place, one stroke off the lead, after the first round.

Grinberg is ranked No. 4,603 and said he lives on site at Le Golf National, which is hosting the tournament.

Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark, Joe Dean of England and Jesper Svensson of Sweden shared the lead after rounds of 65.