Ex-tennis player Bautista Agut scores on football debut

What the report says

Roberto Bautista Agut has made an unexpected return to competitive sport after retiring from tennis, scoring twice on his debut for Spanish seventh-tier club CD Els Ibarsos. BBC Sport reported that the 38-year-old, who stepped away from tennis just over a month ago, played in a pre-season match that his new team won 4-2. The club are based about 60 miles north of Valencia.

Bautista Agut is better known for a long tennis career that included 12 singles titles, a Davis Cup win with Spain in 2019 and a run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2019, which helped lift him to a career-high ranking of world number nine. BBC Sport said he has now turned his attention to football, a sport he played in Villarreal’s youth system until the age of 14 before focusing on tennis.

Els Ibarsos presented him to supporters before his debut and said they hope to see him through a full season. Bautista Agut posted on Instagram that this is a new and happy phase of life and expressed hope that his strong start will continue. The move adds local interest to a modest lower-league side and shows how former elite athletes sometimes return to earlier sports after retirement.