Rafael Nadal: “I am here to live this week with enthusiasm” | ATP Tour

Davis Cup

Nadal: “I am here to live this week with enthusiasm”

The Spanish legend plays the last tournament of his career in the Davis Cup Finals

November 16, 2024

“I’m here to live this week with hope and then we’ll see what happens.” These are the first words that Rafael Nadal has spoken in Malaga, before saying goodbye to tennis in his last professional tournament this November.

It is not just any week, nor just another edition of the Davis Cup Finals. It is enough to approach the Martín Carpena Pavilion to feel in the atmosphere the fusion of a great deal of enthusiasm with another more sentimental and nostalgic one. They are the consequences of feeling so close the goodbye of one of the great icons of sport.

A huge 2,600 square meter sign welcomes the Spanish legend. On a blue background, two words condense the feelings of all the fans: ‘Thank you, Rafa’, a few days before Spain opens in the quarterfinals against the Netherlands next Tuesday the 19th.

“More or less I have been able to do a good preparation that is why I am here, we have to see the day by day,” confessed the Mallorcan in statements to the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET). “I haven’t competed for a while and the reality is that I want to live this week no matter what way it is.”

The first words of the last #DavisCup by Rafa 🎙️📹🇪🇸

Prepared, motivated and eager to dream 💫🏆#DavisCup #MAPFREtenis pic.twitter.com/00OtuohYb3

— Tennis Spain (@RFETenis) November 15, 2024

“In that sense, [estoy] with the hope of closing a very beautiful and long stage of my life, living these last moments with hope, with normality too, from the acceptance that everything has a beginning and an end,” he declared about some days of high emotional burden for him.

However, Nadal is quick to remember that he does not want his personal condition to interfere with the plans of his captain David Ferrer: “First, we have to see how I am feeling these days in training and, if I really don’t see myself ready to have chances of winning the individual, I am the first one who will not want to play.”

“If I don’t see myself ready, I’m the first one to talk to the captain,” he insisted on his approach. “I have already told you on occasions, not to make any decision based on what is my last week as a professional tennis player.”

Nadal continues to pronounce a word that has been the common thread of his career: enthusiasm, despite having 326 tournaments played on his legs during more than 20 years of his career on the circuit.

Since winning his first ATP Tour match—22 seasons ago—in Mallorca 2002 (d. Ramón Delgado) when he was just 15 years old, he has totaled 1,080. This number of matches won has allowed him to win 92 ATP Tour titles, 22 of them in the Grand Slam category and 36 ATP Masters 1000.

“I can’t ask for anything more, I am more than grateful and satisfied with everything that has happened to me during all these years,” he said of his legacy.

Now, he has one last wish before saying goodbye to his best ally until today: “What I would like is obviously for the team to perform well and have a chance of winning one more Davis Cup, whether playing or cheering from the stands, honestly.”