Rafael Nadal's retirement announcement leads to so much love from the tennis world

We sort of all figured it was coming, with Rafael Nadal at 38 years old and so many titles under his belt in a storied tennis career to go along with injuries he’s battled with.

But yes, he’s going to retire after the Davis Cup in November. He’ll finish with 14 French Open wins (a record), four U.S. Opens, two Wimbledon titles and two trophies from the Australian Open.

His announcement that dropped early Thursday morning that you can watch below was beautiful, and so many players and others in the tennis world paid tribute to Rafa as his retirement now approaches: