MALAGA, Spain (AP) — Rafael Nadal showed up at the French Open for the first time as a teenager in 2005 and left as the champion. He won it for the final time in 2022 at age 36 — his last major championship anywhere.
Fittingly, his bookend Grand Slam titles came at Roland Garros, and it's impossible to discuss Nadal's career without mentioning that site. Still, it's also important to remember that he completed a career Grand Slam, earning at least two trophies at each of his sport's four most prestigious tournaments.
As Nadal, now 38, gets set to head into retirement after the Davis Cup Final 8 — which begins Tuesday with his country, Spain, facing the Netherlands — here is a look at his 22 major triumphs, starting with the most recent:
Final: Beat Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-3, 6-0
What He Did: Improved to 14-0 in French Open finals after getting nerve-dulling injections in his left foot.
What He Said: “It’s obvious that with the circumstances that I am playing (in), I can’t — and I don’t want to — keep going.”
Final: Beat Daniil Medvedev 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5
What He Did: Became the first man in 57 years to win an Australian Open final after dropping the first two sets.
What He Said: “I just wanted to keep believing till the end.”
Final: Beat Novak Djokovic 6-0, 6-2, 7-5
What He Did: Pulled even with rival Federer at 20 Slam titles. Won the French Open without dropping a set for the fourth time.
What He Said: “In terms of these records, of course I care.”
Final: Beat Medvedev 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4
What He Did: Became the first man to win majors after turning 30.
What He Said: “The nerves were so high. A crazy match.”
Final: Beat Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1
What He Did: Became the first tennis player to win any Slam tournament a dozen times.
What He Said: “Let’s see for how long I am able to manage and to continue this.”
Final: Beat Thiem 6-4, 6-3, 6-2
What He Did: Got past Thiem, the only man to beat Nadal on clay in 2017 or 2018.
What He Said: “If you tell me seven, eight years ago, that I will be here ... having this trophy with me again, I will tell you that is something almost impossible. But here we are.”
Final: Beat Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-3, 6-4
What He Did: Won his second major title of the season following a 2 1/2-year drought without an appearance in a major final.
What He Said: “After a couple of years without competing at this very high, high level, very happy to be back.”
Final: Beat Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1
What He Did: Won every set and dropped just 35 games in the tournament.
What He Said: “A perfect Roland Garros for me.”
Final: Beat Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4
What He Did: Won a record fifth French Open in a row and pulled even with Pete Sampras at 14 career Slam titles.
What He Said: “Playing here in Roland Garros is just unforgettable.”
Final: Beat Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
What He Did: Improved to 60-3 with 10 titles that year.
What He Said: “This season is probably the most emotional one in my career.”
Final: Beat David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3
What He Did: Came back from an injured left knee that sidelined him for more than six months. Ferrer is now Spain’s Davis Cup captain.
What He Said: “I never like to compare years, but it’s true that this year means something very special for me.”
Final: Beat Djokovic 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5
What He Did: Won a rain-interrupted, two-day title match to break Bjorn Borg’s men's record of six titles in Paris and prevent Djokovic from winning a fourth consecutive major championship.
What He Said: “My mental part, probably, on clay is one of the most important things.”
Final: Beat Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-1
What He Did: Improved to 4-0 against Federer in French Open finals.
What He Said: “If I win this tournament, I know my year is fantastic.”
Final: Beat Djokovic 6–4, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2
What He Did: Earned a third consecutive Slam trophy and first in New York, completing a career Grand Slam.
What He Said: “I’m still 24, so we will see where I am when I finish my career.”
Final: Beat Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-4
What He Did: Swept the French Open and Wimbledon in one season for the second time; couldn’t defend his 2009 title at the All England Club because of a knee problem.
What He Said: “If you want to play well, (you’re) going to find a way.”
Final: Beat Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-2, 6-4
What He Did: Didn’t drop a set; capped it off by defeating Soderling, who handed Nadal his first French Open loss a year earlier.
What He Said: “I’m back.”
Final: Beat Federer 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2
What He Did: Picked up his third win in a row over Federer in major finals.
What He Said: “To receive this trophy from Rod Laver is a dream for me.”
Final: Beat Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7
What He Did: Won a thriller that ended with the light fading to claim a major other than the French Open for the first time and prevent Federer from earning a sixth consecutive Wimbledon title.
What He Said: “He deserved this title, too.”
Final: Beat Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0
What He Did: The most lopsided French Open men’s final since 1977 allowed Nadal to become the first man since Borg in 1980 to win the event without dropping a set.
What He Said: “I am humble, but the numbers are the numbers.”
Final: Beat Federer 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
What He Did: Saved 16 of 17 break points and became only the second man since 1914 (Borg is the other) with three consecutive French Open trophies.
What He Said: “I am very happy, but I am really sad for Roger.”
Final: Beat Federer 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (4)
What He Did: Ended Federer’s 27-match Grand Slam winning streak and handed him his first loss in a major final (Federer had been 7-0).
What He Said: “A bit of luck, a bit of tennis, a bit of mental attitude.”
Final: Beat Mariano Puerta 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5
What He Did: Two days after turning 19, Nadal became the first man to win the French Open in his debut since Mats Wilander in 1982.
What He Said: “When you reach your goal, it’s an extraordinary moment. For the first time, I cried after winning a match.”
FILE - Rafael Nadal, of Spain, bites the trophy while posing for photos after defeating Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, during the men's singles final of the 2013 U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sept. 9, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/David Goldman, file)
FILE - Rafael Nadal of Spain holds the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup after defeating Daniil Medvedev of Russia in the men's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Simon Baker, file)
FILE - Spain's Rafael Nadal bites the trophy as he celebrates winning his tenth French Open title against Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka after their men's final match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, in Paris, France, June 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, file)
FILE - Switzerland's Roger Federer left, and Spain's Rafael Nadal pose for a photo prior to the start of the men's singles final on the Centre Court at Wimbledon, July 6, 2008 (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin warned Monday that President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with U.S.-supplied longer-range missiles adds “fuel to the fire” of the war and would escalate international tensions even higher.
Biden’s shift in policy added an uncertain, new factor to the conflict on the eve of the 1,000-day milestone since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022.
It also came as a Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions struck a residential area of Sumy in northern Ukraine, killing 11 people, including two children, and injuring 84 others. Another missile barrage sparked apartment fires in the southern port of Odesa, killing at least 10 people and injuring 43, including a child, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.
Washington is easing limits on what Ukraine can strike with its American-made Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Sunday, after months of ruling out such a move over fears of escalating the conflict and bringing about a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.
The Kremlin was swift in its condemnation.
“It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps and they have been talking about this, to continue adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The scope of the new firing guidelines isn’t clear. But the change came after the U.S., South Korea and NATO said recently that North Korean troops are in Russia and apparently are being deployed to help Moscow drive Ukrainian troops out of Russia’s Kursk border region.
Biden’s decision was almost entirely triggered by the entry of North Korea into the fight, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, and was made just before he left for Peru to attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit at the end of last week.
Russia also is slowly pushing Ukraine’s outnumbered army backward in the eastern Donetsk region. It has also conducted a devastating aerial campaign against civilian areas in Ukraine.
Peskov referred journalists to a statement made by President Vladimir Putin in September in which he said allowing Ukraine to target Russia would significantly raise the stakes.
It would change “the very nature of the conflict dramatically,” Putin said at the time. “This will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia.”
Peskov claimed that Western countries supplying longer-range weapons also provide targeting services to Kyiv. “This fundamentally changes the modality of their involvement in the conflict,” he said.
Putin warned in June that Moscow could provide longer-range weapons to others to strike Western targets if NATO allowed Ukraine to use its allies' arms to attack Russian territory. He also reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty.
President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in about two months, has raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue vital military support to Ukraine. He has also vowed to quickly end the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a muted response to the approval that he and his government have been requesting of Biden for more than a year.
“Today, much is being said in the media about us receiving permission for the relevant actions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.
“But strikes are not made with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves,” he said.
The new policy's consequences on the battlefield are uncertain. ATACMS, which have a range of about 300 kilometers (190 miles), can reach targets far behind the about 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line in Ukraine, but they have relatively short range compared with other types of ballistic and cruise missiles.
The policy change came “too late to have a major strategic effect,” said Patrick Bury, a senior associate professor in security at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.
“The ultimate kind of impact it will have is to probably slow down the tempo of the Russian offensives which are now happening,” he said.
Ukraine could target enemy troops concentrated in Kursk or logistics hubs or command headquarters, Bury added.
On a political level, the move “is a boost to the Ukrainians and it gives them a window of opportunity to try and show that they are still viable and worth supporting” as Trump prepares to enter the White House, said Matthew Savill, director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
The cue for the policy change was the arrival in Russia of North Korean troops, according to Glib Voloskyi, an analyst at the CBA Initiatives Center, a Kyiv-based think tank.
“This is a signal the Biden administration is sending to North Korea and Russia, indicating that the decision to involve North Korean units has crossed a red line,” he told AP.
Russian lawmakers and state media bashed the West over what they called an escalatory step, and threatened a harsh response.
“Biden, apparently, decided to end his presidential term and go down in history as ‘Bloody Joe,’” senior lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of Russian parliament, called it "a very big step toward the start of World War III” and an attempt to “reduce the degree of freedom for Trump.”
Russian newspapers offered similar predictions of doom. “The madmen who are drawing NATO into a direct conflict with our country may soon be in great pain,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta said.
Some NATO allies welcomed the move.
President Andrzej Duda of Poland, which borders Ukraine, praised the decision as “much needed” and calling it a “very important, maybe even a breakthrough moment“ in the war.
“In the recent days, we have seen the decisive intensification of Russian attacks on Ukraine, above all, those missile attacks where civilian objects are attacked, where people are killed, ordinary Ukrainians,” Duda said.
Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna of Russian neighbor Estonia said easing restrictions on Ukraine was “a good thing.”
“We have been saying that from the beginning — that no restrictions must be put on the military support,” he said at a meeting of senior European Union diplomats in Brussels. “And we need to understand that situation is more serious (than) it was even maybe like a couple of months ago.”
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said he’s not “opening the champagne” yet as it is unclear exactly what restrictions have been lifted and whether Ukraine has enough of the U.S. weapons to make a difference.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, known for his pro-Russian views, described Biden’s decision as “an unprecedented escalation” that would prolong the war.
Matthew Lee in Washington, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Danica Kirka in London, Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic contributed.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Moscow-appointed head of Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Yevgeny Balitsky during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, police officers evacuate an injured resident following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a police officer, right, evacuates an elderly resident following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters extinguish the fire following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters extinguish the fire following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
