Roberto Bautista Agut: ‘I feel the time has come to start saying goodbye’ | ATP Tour

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Bautista Agut: ‘I really feel the time has come to start out saying goodbye’

Former Prime-10 star Bautista Agut reveals he’ll retire on the finish of the 2026 season

April 16, 2026

The time has come to say adios. Roberto Bautista Agut introduced on Thursday that he’ll deliver his lengthy and profitable ATP Tour profession to an in depth on the finish of this season, after twenty years on the prime {of professional} tennis. The Spaniard spent 27 weeks within the Prime 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings, peaking at World No. 9.

“I’ve been residing a dream for a few years. I’ve given every little thing I had in each observe session and each match,” Bautista Agut stated. “Now I really feel the time has come to start out saying goodbye, to take pleasure in each match differently and to finish this section of my life with gratitude for my beloved tennis.”

The Castellon native, who has simply turned 37, has loved a really completely different profession to a lot of his countrymen. His fashion of play, primarily based round highly effective, flat hitting from the baseline, has allowed him to change into one of many Tour’s most versatile gamers, successful at the least one title on onerous, clay, grass, and indoor onerous court docket.

Bautista Agut has 12 ATP Tour titles underneath his belt, the primary approaching the lawns of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2012. It’s grass the place he has carried out greatest, with a 67.1 per cent win fee, in keeping with the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. As well as, at Wimbledon he loved his greatest run at a significant, reaching the semi-finals in 2019.

Nonetheless, onerous court docket proved extra fruitful for him. Auckland 2016, Sofia 2016, Chennai 2017, Winston-Salem 2017, Auckland 2018, Dubai 2018, Doha 2019, 2022, and Antwerp 2024 make up his assortment of 9 titles on onerous, each outdoor and indoors. In the meantime, Stuttgart 2014 and Kitzbuehel 2022 had been his two triumphs on clay.

“I wish to be current till the ultimate level of the yr,” Bautista Agut stated of his time remaining on the ATP Tour. “I wish to really feel and admire the help of the individuals, to compete another time within the tournaments which were a part of my life, and to say farewell on court docket, which is the place I’ve at all times been happiest.”

The Spaniard has performed greater than 700 tour-level matches throughout his profession, with a report of 435-297. His journey started at residence, in Valencia, the place he performed his first match in 2009 towards fellow Spaniard Albert Montanes. Nonetheless, he must wait till 2012 to notch his first win.

Bautista Agut gained his first ATP Tour match on the ATP Masters 1000 occasion in Miami towards Andreas Seppi, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, in a match the place he managed to return by means of the qualifying. That season, on the age of 24, he broke into the Prime 100 for the primary time on 13 August 2012.

Maybe the tip has arrived earlier than he would have appreciated, nevertheless it actually comes with the satisfaction of getting been one among his nation’s main gamers over current many years.