Rafael Nadal hunt for a graceful and glorious exit as he announce his..

After all these years, it’s clear there is one thing Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal are terrible at — quitting.

In a sport where the brain can drive success as much as the body, that quality has long helped carry Murray and Nadal to their lofty status as two of the best players to pick up a racket. Murray has come back from two sets down more than any other player. Nadal has won matches with cracked ribs and torn muscles. He endured pain-killing injections before his matches at the French Open in 2022 and left Paris on crutches after winning that tournament for a record 14th time.

As long as they have played tennis, they competed as long as they could stand upright – even sometimes when they could not. After something like a quarter of a century of so much positive reinforcement for that behavior, their brains are hard-wired to live and play only one way.

But as the 2023 season winds to a close and next year’s 11-month slog approaches, that instinct stands to lead them down a path no one wants to follow — chasing the mirage of a glorious, storybook ending that so few athletes get to experience, especially tennis players, who have to earn whatever glory they can on their own, without team-mates carrying them across the finish line. Pete Sampras got it, but only sort of.

With nothing left to prove and their legacies solidified long ago, Nadal, 37, and Murray, 36, have been giving essentially the same answer to a question they have confronted often during the past two years, as they battled ailing hips, sore feet and ankles and any number of other injuries just so they could start matches: Why?

Nadal has started regularly posting pictures of his practice sessions again, but he made no promises following an announcement last month from Craig Tiley, the chief executive of the Australian Open, that the 22-time Grand Slam champion would compete in Melbourne early next year. Nadal has said he is hoping that 2024 will serve as a competitive farewell tour for him. There is talk of him pairing with Carlos Alcaraz, his 20-year-old compatriot, to play doubles at the Olympics in Paris next summer.

His uncle, Toni Nadal, who coached him for the bulk of his career and remains an advisor, has spoken of him playing beyond 2024 if he is healthy. Nadal is making no promises.

“I appreciate the vote of confidence… I am practicing every day and working hard to come back ASAP,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to Tiley’s statement and a reel of his highlights that Tennis Australia posted.

Murray was anything but sanguine following yet another wrenching early-round loss to Alex de Minaur of Australia in Paris last week. He smashed his racket when it was over, having lost a 5-2 lead in the third set as well as a match point. Then he told the British press that he had not been enjoying tennis much the past months and some hard conversations about his future might be in the offing.

Nearly six years ago, Murray underwent the hip resurfacing surgery that plenty of specialists thought would end his singles career. Instead, his post-surgery ranking peaked at 37 over the summer and the dream of a Sampras-like finish that every ageing champion longs for came alive, at least for him.