MADRID – So many times the impossible was possible, Rafael Nadal and those around him ended up believing that things are always like that. You can win Roland Garros 14 times, you can return to world number one after injuries and breaks that would send most people into retirement, you can shout ‘come on!’ and completely change the history of a match, Daniil Medvedev knows all too well.
You can, but not always. The result of his decision to retire in the Davis Cup finals in Malaga proved it, an unfair and bitter end to the career of the greatest Spanish sportsman in history, one of the greatest of all time worldwide.
Roger Federer sent him a farewell letter that was almost a declaration of love, and Novak Djokovic, after assuring that he would be in Malaga to attend the farewell of the man who made him a better tennis player, was not seen. Perhaps the Serb was hoping, like Nadal and the rest of the Spaniards, that the farewell would be at the weekend, and not in the opener against the Netherlands.
The speculation in the days before about whether Nadal would play the singles made no sense; what other option did the captain, David Ferrer, have, or would Nadal’s farewell be in a doubles?
Yes, it could be said that the doubles would be against the Netherlands and that the singles would come in the semi-finals. But the Spaniards were aware that the opener had its difficulties, that this was perhaps the only chance for the Mallorcan to say goodbye by playing. And if it wasn’t against Van de Zandschulp, ATP 80, who would he do it with?
‘I am privileged,’ Nadal said several times in his emotional speech on Tuesday night in Malaga. He is privileged, yes, but a human being like anyone else, too. He suffers, he gets emotional, he feels under pressure. And the farewell in the Davis Cup was actually a trap: to the professional responsibility that Nadal always showed was added the responsibility of not failing his country, the shirt of Spain.
Too much pressure for a tennis player who could barely compete in the last two and a half years. Exactly the opposite of what Federer chose for his farewell, a Laver Cup that is an exhibition, a doubles alongside Nadal, his great rival, and making sure that all the tennis stars would be there to applaud him. As icing on the cake, the photo of the Swiss and the Spaniard holding hands and crying.
In Malaga, the video-messages from his rivals touched Nadal to the core, as did the dedication and affection of the crowd, too. Very strange, however, was what happened on Wednesday, when two of Spain’s most important newspapers did not give space on their front page to Nadal’s farewell. Perhaps because Malaga was a trap? It’s hard to celebrate the bitter pill that a sportsman who deserved something else was forced to swallow.
