The inevitable moment has arrived that one wishes would never come. Finally, this past Thursday at eleven in the morning, Rafael published a video in which he communicated his decision to leave the competition and, therefore, end his professional career in the world of tennis. He also reported that the setting chosen to bid farewell to his long career would be the Davis Cup final tie to be held this November in Malaga.
For months he delayed this decision, even knowing that he had to make it sooner rather than later, because it was not easy for him to end such an important stage of his life and stop doing what he had been doing successfully since a very early age. since he had the use of reason. In his case, there has also been another particular circumstance that has led him to extend his farewell.
Rafael learned to live with pain for many years, he managed to master it on many occasions and saw how, despite doubts and uncertainties, he sometimes emerged not only victorious, but also strengthened. That was one of the reasons that made him postpone his considered decision again and again. Everyone knows that he is used to pushing his fight to the end, just as he did in many matches when the situation was clearly adverse to him and it was difficult for him to give in. In these last two years, he has simply continued with his usual tone, that of giving himself every opportunity, more by faith than by reasoning and, finally, he has only agreed to accept the obvious reality when he has had the indisputable confirmation that his body it doesn’t go any further.
Today I can firmly affirm that Rafael has fulfilled what he promised me a few years ago in a conversation we had in a section of a club. I told him that a well-known former tennis player had confessed to me the dissatisfaction that his tennis career caused him. With remarkable sincerity he had lamented, not for not having achieved more titles, but for his lack of perseverance. Out of fear, I urged my nephew not to make that mistake and, with more zeal than I expected, Rafael replied: “Calm down, Toni. When I leave here it will be with the peace of mind of having tried everything.”
Now, after a few days, when I am entrusted with the impossible task of expressing my feelings at his farewell in this writing, my mind has been filled with nostalgic images, memories, moments lived and shared alongside Rafael.
What what happened has meant to me since his beginnings in tennis, when I watched him with his racket sheathed, hanging around the Manacor Tennis Club restlessly waiting for his turn to enter the court and train with me, until his last rackets, those that I observed with some concern when I saw that neither his blows nor his legs responded with the same freshness and strength of yesteryear, certainly, I do not know how to express it in words. Everything that has happened between those distant years and the present final point, from his first victories in the juvenile and children’s tournaments that made us foreshadow what would happen later to his last great triumphs in Melbourne or Paris, is the manifestation of a dream almost perfect.
They were intense years in which, with him, I had the opportunity to experience great moments: his first Davis Cup final in Seville as a somewhat unexpected debutant, his first Roland Garros in 2005 or his victory at Wimbledon in 2008, in an acclaimed final. against Roger Federer that has been considered the best in history. But also, the diagnosis of his congenital injury in 2005, a sword of Damocles that forced him to live with pain and uncertainty. Some traveling companions who helped him shape his character more strongly and who have caused him great suffering, although only on very specific occasions have they been a reason for decline or complaint. In our case, it would have been very ungrateful to fall into one or the other. In difficult moments, I used to repeat to him a phrase that I have already written here: “Rafael, life has treated us better than we expected and much better than we deserved.”
Rafael’s career has been very successful, far exceeding my expectations even though I have always had unwavering faith in him. And this success, his incredible record, has led him to have the wide admiration and valuable support of the fans. But, without a doubt, what has made him worthy of such widespread respect and recognition also outside the stands, has not been exclusively the number of titles achieved, but rather having based them on a strict scale of values and his ability to maintain them during his entire career: his correctness, his exemplary behavior in both victories and defeats, the passion with which he has faced each of his matches, the commitment that he has always maintained with the sport itself and with everything that surrounds it, the acceptance of adversity and his way of overcoming it and, above all, the respect that he has always known how to show for each of his rivals, regardless of their entity and despite the fact that some of them inflicted some of the defeats on him. most painful of his career.
There are athletes who, due to their great abilities, have managed to be leaders in their discipline; a few others who have managed to enhance and even transcend their own sport; and only a few, who, due to their attitude and way of proceeding, have transcended the mere sporting field and have become references for society. I believe, without fear of being wrong and openly accepting the criticism that may come with stating this as I am his uncle, that my nephew, like his greatest rival for many years, Roger Federer, falls within this last category.
Starting in November, the trophies that rest in the display cases of the museum of his Academy in Manacor will gradually lose shine and splendor, but I have no doubt that Rafael will always enjoy and greatly value his most precious reward: the immense affection and appreciation of the people of our country and many places in the world.
I can only say goodbye to him with the admiration that he has always aroused in me for his bordering on heroic way of fighting, for how he has always faced adversity and challenges, and for managing victories and defeats with equal normality. And I wish, above all, to express immense gratitude to you for allowing me to accompany you in a stage of your life that made me deeply happy.
