By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Photograph credit score: Mike McNulty/Getty for ITF Davis Cup
Champions come and go.
Legends stay endlessly.
Extra: TC Suspends Jon Wertheim
Earlier than an adoring house crowd serenading him with chants of “Rafa! Rafa!”, 38-year-old Spanish famous person Rafael Nadal obtained a heroic send-off in his closing skilled occasion at Davis Cup in Malaga, Spain right this moment.
Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp defeated Nadal 6-4, 6-4 within the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s closing singles match.
Wesley Koolhof and Van de Zandschulp stopped Carlos Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers 7-6(4), 7-6(3) clinching The Netherlands 2-1 Davis Cup quarterfinal conquest of Spain and ending Nadal’s storied profession.
Former world No. 1 Nadal spoke with gratitude about his profession and grew emotional when a tribute video was performed on the massive display screen.
Grand Slam champions together with Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Serena Williams and Juan Martin del Potro paid tribute to Nadal, expressing precisely what he means to tennis and to them personally.
Afterward, Nadal was requested the legacy he hopes to go away.
The king of clay stated he hopes individuals will sum up his legacy in three phrases: particular person.
Embed from Getty Pictures
The proprietor of 92 profession championships stated being an excellent particular person is extra essential to him than being an incredible champion.
“On the finish of the day, being trustworthy, lots of people work onerous, lots of people strive their greatest each single day,” Nadal instructed the gang in Malaga. “However I’m one in all these that I’ve been very fortunate that the life gave me the chance to stay unforgettable experiences due to tennis.
“I simply need to be remembered as an excellent particular person and as a child that adopted their desires and achieved greater than what I ever dreamed.”
In that quest, in addition to so many others in his superb profession, Nadal was an impressed success.
