Nadal marks the Davis Cup Finals with Spain as a contender for the title defended by Italy

The farewell of Rafa Nadal, one of the best athletes of all time, marks the 2024 Davis Cup Finals that will be held at the José María Martín Carpena Pavilion in Málaga from November 19 to 24, and which will have Italy Jannik Sinner as the main favorite to revalidate the title achieved last year and the ‘Spanish Army’ led by ‘Nadalcaraz’ as the main contender.

The 2024 Davis Cup Finals, that has been the event chosen by Rafael Nadal, probably the best Spanish athlete of all time, to end his sublime sporting career. Fate, injuries and Nadal himself have meant that the last competition that the Manacorí plays as a professional tennis player is the same one that made him known to the general public, 20 years ago, in an epic final against the United States in Seville, in the who was able to defeat the American number one Andy Roddick.

That would be the first of countless exploits by Rafa Nadal in the world of tennis, a career in which the Davis Cup has always played a leading role. The Manacorí has ​​lifted the ‘salad bowl’ up to five times throughout his career, and doing so a sixth would be the finishing touch to his performance. Furthermore, if he achieved this, he would become the Spanish tennis player with the most Davis in history, having participated in all of those in Spain except for the one in 2000.

But for this epilogue in Nadal’s career to happen, Spain must prevail in a competition in which Italy, the current champion, is the great favorite. With the number one in the world, Jannik Sinner, as the first sword, the ‘azzurri’ have it in their power to lift their second consecutive ‘salad bowl’. In addition, to Sinner’s historic year, with 70 victories in 76 matches and 8 titles in 2024 – two Grand Slams and the ATP Finals among them -, the Italian team adds a ‘Top 20’ like Lorenzo Musetti and a powerful doubles with Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli, both installed in the ‘Top 10’ of the doubles ranking.

And the Spanish team appears as the champion’s main opponent. Carlos Alcaraz, Rafa Nadal, Roberto Bautista, Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martínez will try to regain the throne of world tennis for Spain five years after the last Davis (2019). The ‘Armada’ has plenty of arguments to believe: a number one capable of beating anyone like Alcaraz, a top-level number two like Nadal or Bautista, and an accomplished doubles player like Marcel Granollers.

But in addition to the Spanish, the 2024 Davis Cup Finals also have powerful teams that can win the title such as the United States, Argentina and Australia. The Americans, with the brand new finalist of the ATP Finals Taylor Fritz, a world-class second sword like Tommy Paul and the Olympic doubles runners-up will be Italy’s great rivals at the top of the table, although to play the semifinal against the ‘azzurri’, who face Australia in the quarterfinals, will first have to get rid of the always rocky Argentina.

The lower part of the draw is somewhat more open, in which Germany, without Alexander Zverev, and the Canada of old rockers like Denis Shapovalov and Milos Raonic will fight for a place in the semifinals. There, the winner of the tie that opens the tournament will be waiting for him: Spain-Netherlands. A duel in which the Spaniards start as favorites, but in which Tallon Griekspoor and Botic Van de Zandschulp have a lot to say and offer.

Finally, another attraction that the tournament will have is that this will be the last edition to be played in the current format of the competition. Thus, next year, the organization will give way to a mixed model in which the confrontations prior to the final eight will be face to face (‘head to head’) and in which one of the teams will play at home.