After so many times playing in prime time, after dinner, at the time that attracts and brings together all the fans around a screen, Rafael Nadal could not have a goodbye in keeping with his great career. He had a farewell that was the most atypical of the tracks. Tails came up. Circumstances worked against them so that it was a massive finale and so that reactions rained down.
The story of the Manacor champion went out at midnight on a Tuesday, far from the Sunday finals. Could not leave with victory. And he couldn’t leave with the racket in his hand either. It was delayed. He played, lost and watched the two remaining games from the bench. And since he is a fighter and a warrior, he did not stop encouraging and giving instructions. They did not serve to keep Spain in the tournament.
It came out the other way around
He could not leave with the racket in his hand until after suffering the doubles defeat on the bench
Nadal had won 29 consecutive matches in the Davis Cup. It had only lost one, the first, in its entire history. That was more than 20 years ago. On February 6, 2024, the Czech Novak won three sets to zero in Brno in the first match of the first round.
Then, Spain was able to come back to advance to the quarterfinals. It was Nadal himself who certified that victory in the fifth duel. This time, against the Netherlands in Malaga, he could not help more after losing his last match in Davis. As it seemed, that was also his last appearance as a professional. There was no chance of reaching the semifinals to shake off the taste of defeat.
29 wins in a row
He had not lost an individual match in the Davis Cup since February 2004
The villain was not Djokovic or Federer, the great rivals of his career, whom he has faced 100 times (60 against the Serbian, 40 against the Swiss). Not even Sinner or Alcaraz, the young people called to take advantage of the void it leaves. It was the Dutch Botic van de Zandschulp, a tennis player who has not won any ATP tournament, but who in Shanghai got rid of Carreño and in the US Open he beat Alcaraz. He defeated him by a double 6-4.
Just like the Portuguese Nuno Borges crossed his path and separated him in Bastad, in July, from what would have been his 93rd individual title.
Far from the finals that I used to
The villain was not Djokovic or Federer, not even Sinner or Alcaraz, but the Dutchman Van de Zandschulp
Life can be that twisted and cruel for a winner of 22 Grand Slam titles. For the king of clay, who had to play it on a hard court. For a man who is a record holder in Paris, who has a court with his name in the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Trofeo Conde de Godó and won two Olympic golds.
He chose to retire with his son in the stands, at the age of 38, in red, in the Davis Cup, a tournament that saw him leave in 2000 as a teenager as flag bearer at the Palau Sant Jordi, when he was still a promise. What he couldn’t choose was the way: with defeat, at midnight, at the witching hour, and without even being sweaty. Everything turned out the other way around. After thinking about it so much, no one considered this possibility. Of course, he received a great ovation from Martín Carpena.
#Nadals #atypical #years #midnight
