After midnight, the audience in the arena in Malaga rose to congratulate Rafael Nadal – not on a victory, it was no longer enough. But at the end of a great career. He had lost his 1,307th professional match earlier in the evening, 4:6, 4:6 in the first singles of the Davis Cup against Botic van de Zandschulp. Afterwards, the Spanish tennis team also had to submit to a 2-1 quarter-final defeat against the Dutch team. The career of Rafael Nadal, one of the best to ever step into the realm between the white lines in sport, was over at 12:02 a.m.
Tears were flowing even before the first ball flew. Nadal was visibly struggling to keep his composure when the national anthem played at 5 p.m., ten thousand spectators sang along at the top of their lungs and quite a few wiped their eyes. The shouts of “Rafa, Rafa” were so deafening that the stadium announcer interrupted his announcement. Then it became very quiet again in the Jose Maria Martin Carpena Arena as the victims of the flood disaster in the Valencia region two weeks ago were remembered. A moment that put things back into perspective. The farewell of the greatest Spaniard to ever set foot on a tennis court may be sad; it is not a cause for sadness. “Every athlete retires at some point, that’s the way of the world,” Nadal has said often enough in recent months.
The battered body has reached its limits
On Tuesday evening he stepped to the white line one last time. He let the ball bounce, brushed his hair from his forehead left and right in a short ritual, tugged on his earlobe, left, right, and the waistband of his pants before he hit the serve over the net. Seen a thousand times. The will was there, the determination, the energy, the strength, the concentration – but it wasn’t enough, even against the Dutch’s second-best player, Botic van de Zandschulp, 29, number 80 in the world. Nadal himself assessed it this way after the game: “He was better than me, there’s nothing more to say. It’s no longer necessary to analyze much.”
Rafael Nadal, 38, winner of 22 Grand Slam titles since 2005, had spent another six weeks torturing himself into shape for this final appearance in Malaga, with an audience that loved him and was frenetically driving him on with every rally. His last official match was three months ago, a defeat at the Paris Olympics against old rival Novak Djokovic. Since he inflicted another hip flexor injury on his battered body almost two years ago, it has become clear that this human body is also reaching its limits. The hip was operated on, a piece of muscle was transplanted, then the tissue tore again in the same place in January. At least he actually made it to the end of the season again.
It could have been three farewell matches for him in Malaga had the Spanish team reached the semi-finals and final. But Nadal’s performance against van de Zandschulp initiated the early defeat. He admitted that he lost the first two rallies perhaps because he was nervous. He kept up until 4:4, even if he lacked his previous explosiveness and agility. He was quick, but often not enough, and sometimes a ball landed next to the line that he would have previously curled into the field with force. The audience cheered point by point, he motivated himself with a clenched fist, but the Dutchman managed to break to 4:5 and then the first set was lost.
When the decision was made, Nadal was sitting on the bench
In the second, the genius with which he had captivated the audience since he first competed in the Davis Cup as an 18-year-old in 2004 flashed through: he made it 1-2 after a brilliant exchange of blows with a ball that he he hit backwards over his shoulder at full speed. After 1:52 hours it was clear: the last fireworks had burned off.
Nadal’s Spanish colleague Carlos Alcaraz, 21, met the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in the second singles, he equalized the match in two sets (7:6, 6:3). The decision was made in doubles, which Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers lost against Koolhof/van de Zandschulp 6:7, 6:7. Nadal watched the defeat in the Spanish team’s circle from the bench.
Would Spain captain David Ferrer have done better without Nadal’s participation in this quarter-final? It was a risk, Nadal himself admitted. On the other hand, it is the team boss’s job to nominate the player from whom he is most likely to win, and he, Nadal, did not pressure him. He has conquered this Davis Cup four times in his career (2004, 2009, 2011, 2019), in addition to 92 individual trophies. “But if I were the captain myself,” he said at the end with unsentimental honesty, “then I would replace myself.” He already knew on the pitch while he was chasing the last ball: the game was over.