Rafael Nadal: “There is no ideal farewell” | ATP Tour

Davis Cup

Nadal: “There is no ideal farewell”

The Spaniard lives his last week on the circuit normally

November 18, 2024

Many times a goodbye implies a feeling of sadness and nostalgia. In the case of Rafael Nadal, he tries to stay out of the emotions surrounding his last days as a professional tennis player this week at the Davis Cup Finals and that is why, although he calmly accepts his situation, he avoids drawing a dream scenario for his finale.

“There is no ideal farewell,” he was quick to clarify at the Spanish team’s press conference this Monday in Malaga before debuting this Tuesday against the Netherlands. “Movie endings are usually for American films and I realized a long time ago that I wouldn’t have one of these, so it’s not something that worries me.”

The 22-time Grand Slam champion chooses to subtract drama and literature from his goodbye, normalizing an inevitable life process for every athlete. “I am living it in the best possible way, with the normality that I have tried to experience everything in the good and bad times, without any excess of anything.”

While the questions are directed practically in a single direction towards the same protagonist, his companions at the table Carlos Alcaraz, David Ferrer, Roberto Bautista Agut, Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez, intervened to praise Nadal’s career, as if they were taking the floor. a few moments on behalf of the world of sport and fans.

“Evidently an era is ending for me. There have been many years shared with many of them [sus compañeros] and with others less so, but it happens to me when I see an athlete that I am used to seeing on television every week, in the end they are still part of your life,” explained Nadal.

“I understand that for many people who have grown up watching me play regularly, a stage is ending, they will never see me playing at a professional level again,” continued the champion of 92 ATP Tour titles. “It is something that is part of life itself, that has happened to everyone and at this moment it is my turn, as was logical.”

The former world No. 1 will be able to say goodbye, at least, in the way he claimed a year ago in an appearance before the media: dressed in shorts, being part of the competition. “I don’t deserve to end my career like this, in a press conference,” he said last May 2023 when he announced that this would be his last season as a professional.

“In the end what I said has come true, that the normal thing is that this was my last year and that’s how it was,” he recalled about his words last year at the Rafa Nadal Academy. “But I wanted to give myself the opportunity, because I always like to have certainty, I don’t want to be left with the doubt of “what if I hadn’t done…”.

With only two tournaments played under his belt in 2023 (United Cup and Australian Open), he decided to undergo surgery so he could hang up his racket doing the same thing he had done for almost 25 seasons of his career: playing teins.

“I know that I have done everything I could, my time has come and [tengo que] accept it as such, without any type of drama to leave with the personal peace of mind of having always made that last effort that the situation required,” he added. “Just as I have done it many other times and it has turned out well, a time has come that due to age, due to the accumulation of everything and the multifactorial injury I have to say this is it.”

But that “this far” has at least one more chapter left this Tuesday in the Davis Cup quarterfinals. “We are here to compete, everything else does not have to distract us from what we came for, which is to try to give our best to achieve the best possible result.”

Although Nadal avoids talking about an ideal farewell scenario, if there is one possible, it is clear: lifting his sixth Ensaldera with Spain next Sunday. “It would be fantastic to have the whole team very competitive, trying to win another Davis Cup. Apart from being a nice farewell for me, it would be a great joy for everyone.”