Tennis fans on Twitter understandably flipped out Thursday when the name “Nadal” was trending and connected to the word “retirement.”
Naturally, they assumed almost-34-year-old superstar Rafael Nadal was calling it quits, which isn’t an outrageous leap to make considering the Spaniard has a storied career and a variety of injuries over the years. But rest assured, tennis Twitter: Nadal, the 19-time Grand Slam champ, is not retiring (yet).
However, an unbeaten horse named Nadal was unexpectedly retired Thursday.
The 3-year-old unbeaten horse — he was trained by the legendary Bob Baffert — won all four of the races he competed in and earned more than $1 million in winnings, the Louisville Courier Journal reported. But Thursday, the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leader was diagnosed with a condylar fracture in his left front leg and immediately had surgery to put screws in the injured leg.
While that’s obviously unfortunate for the horse and those who work with it, sports fans were largely just relieved to learn Nadal the horse, not Nadal the tennis player, retired. Relax, tennis Twitter. It’s OK.
