Madrid (AP): Rafael Nadal announced Thursday he will retire from tennis at age 38 following next month's Davis Cup finals.

Nadal won 22 Grand Slam singles titles during an unprecedented era he shared with his rivals in the so-called Big Three, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

In an announcement on social media, the Spaniard indicated his decision was related to persistent injury problems.

“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. 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 said.

Nadal added he was “very excited” to finish his career at the Davis Cup, which will be played in Malaga, Spain.

Nadal has not played since the Paris Olympics, where he lost to old rival Djokovic in the second round of the singles tournament and reached the quarterfinals of the men's doubles with Carlos Alcaraz.

 

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Lucknow (PTI): Lucknow Super Giants pacer Mohsin Khan added another sordid chapter to Kolkata Knight Riders' batting woes, taking five wickets to restrict the three-time champions to a modest 155 for seven in their IPL match here on Sunday.

Mohsin’s 5 for 23, a personal best for the left-arm pacer in this format, tore apart an already struggling KKR batting unit, as he snaffled the cream wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, Tim Seifert, Cameron Green, Rovman Powell and Anukul Roy.

Rinku Singh (83 not out, 51 balls) made a well-paced fifty and punished Mohammed Shami in the 19th over for 6, 4, 4 and the smoked four sixes in a row against spinner Digvesh Rathi as KKR made 43 runs in the last two overs to go past the 150-run mark.

But his fifty remained a lone act, as Mohsin firmly stood in the limelight.

His bowling ethos were rooted in simple tactics — bang the ball into the black soil pitch to gain bounce or use cutters at various pace to keep the batters guessing.

Mohsin, who started the night with a wicket maiden, showed his variety across two dismissals.

He followed Rahane with a fuller ball as the batter tried to go over the covers, but the ball’s trajectory forced the KKR skipper to just slice the ball up for a simple catch for Aiden Markram.

The 27-year-old stayed calm when Green, who looked comfortable out there while smashing George Linde for two successive sixes, slammed him for a huge maximum.

Two balls later, Mohsin dug one short, challenging Green (34) to go for the pull and the Australian all-rounder took the bait.

The into-the-body angle worked again as Green could only sky the ball to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

Green’s ouster also ended a fifth wicket alliance worth 42 with Rinku Singh.

Bizarre dismissal of Raghuvanshi

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If the existing turmoil was not enough, KKR had to bear the dejection of seeing Angkrish Raghuvanshi getting dismissed obstructing the field.

On the final ball of the fifth over from Prince Yadav, Raghuvanshi nudged one towards mid-on and set off for a single, only to be rejected by Green.

Raghuvanshi put in a dive to save himself but he came in the line of the throw from Shami.

Subsequently, third umpire Rohit Pandit accepted LSG’s appeal and decided that the batter’s turning radius was more than required, eventually resulting in the batter’s dismissal in a rare manner.