While Rafael Nadal (38) climbs onto the platform of the press room, in the bowels of Martín Carpena, to attend to the dozens of envoys who ask him if this is the end, if this story ends here, Carlos Alcaraz ( 21) rolls up his sleeves and saves the check.
The Murcian talent is exploited against Tallon Griekspoor, the Dutchman who has never won a match against him (now they are 5-0), who has not even taken a set from him, accelerates in the tie break of the first set and there is no longer whoever coughs on him: he wins 7-6 (0) and 6-3 and then rolls up his sleeves again, because the comeback must be rounded off.
He doesn’t get it.
In the depths of the night, the Spanish doubles surrenders to the Koolhof-Van de Zandschulp couple (7-6 (4) and 7-6 (3)), and here it all ends: Spain’s career in these finals of the Davis Cup, and the sports career of Rafael Nadal.
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This is a strange goodbye, a bitter tribute between the voices of the parish.
“Long live Spain,” they sing, the showgirls, thousands of red throats, but the parish orangebustling a few hours later, when Van de Zandschulp retired Nadal, is still bustling now.
And in the depths of the Malaga night everyone shouts, excited, and the Spanish doubles tries to take flight, the one made up of an Alcaraz supposedly not very experienced in these matters (even fighting alongside Nadal in the Paris Games) and a Marcel Granollers committed, unexpected doubles player, currently fourth in the world, in this year in which, together with Horacio Zeballos, he has played in three finals and has won two.
-What happens is that Granollers wants Koolhof – Nacho Albarrán, a colleague of the newspaper, tells me. Acein the press gallery.
And I turn to statistics and interpret the data: in 2024, the Koolhof-Mektic duo has defeated Granollers-Zeballos in three of their four direct duels.
Granollers has outstanding accounts with Koolhof and the commitment commits it. He’s not fine tonight, the Dutch are trying to tickle him, ignoring Alcaraz, whose service, often above 200 km/h, is a guarantee, safe passage to easy points that the Murcian squeezes from the back of the track.
Not a soul leaves the Carpena, and the Malaga metro line has already closed and we are going to see how I leave the place and return to the hotel and, pressured in the tie break of the first round, the Spanish get stuck, they give it up to the 1h10m.
It’s time to row and row, and the organizers share an email: they tell us that, in case of defeat of the Spanish, a tribute to Nadal is planned at the foot of the court, so no one moves from here, especially when he doubles Spaniard seems to react, breaks Van de Zandschulp’s serve in the second set and has an advantage that disappears later, when Granollers loses serve.
Here we are again, in the stands the Spaniards are biting their nails and on the court, the doubles begins to see himself with water up to his neck, he looks into the abyss, he sees himself two points from defeat but he rows harder, he rows until he forces the second tie break, but from there it doesn’t happen, it can’t take it anymore.
All this ended quickly, and the Malaga night darkens: only the Dutch celebrate it here. While the stands mourn their fate, the oranje They jump on the floor, they behave like that guy who was never invited to your party, but he approaches it, puts on his music, pours the drinks, then turns off the music and turns off the light and ruins the party, that’s it, that’s it, see you soon , Nadal.
#Alcaraz #untangle #knot #Spain
