After repeated criticism of the farewell ceremony Rafael Nadal At the Davis Cup Final 8 tournament in Malaga, the ITF association president defended himself David Haggertythat it was organized entirely according to the wishes of the 22-time Grand Slam winner.
by Dietmar Kaspar
last edited: November 27, 2024, 7:47 a.m
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From a sporting point of view, Rafael Nadal’s retirement at the Final 8 tournament of this year’s Davis Cup was a huge thwart. Not only did the 14-time Roland Garros champion lose his singles against a strong Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarter-final duel against the Dutch, the Spanish team also had to give up completely after losing the doubles, despite an equalizer from Carlos Alcaraz canceled at the home game in Malaga.
Immediately afterwards was the farewell ceremony on the court, which Nadal opened with a nearly 10-minute speech, followed by a video tribute with greetings from various stars such as his long-time rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. With a farewell to the fans and his teammates, the left-hander left the tennis court as an active player forever.
Three Spanish trainers, who played a key role in shaping the Mallorcan’s path, showed great dissatisfaction with the way the ceremony went. Carlos Moya, who coached the 38-year-old from 2017 until the end of his career, even described it as “shabby”. His discoverer and uncle Toni Nadal expressed himself somewhat more moderately, but also dissatisfiedly, saying that it “did not meet his expectations”. Spanish Davis Cup captain David Ferrer was particularly bitter that Nadal’s “Big 3” colleagues Federer and Djokovic were not there in person.
Confronted with the criticism of the ceremony, ITF Federation President David Haggerty moderated it in his usual “political” way: “Rafa is a great player and has left a legacy in tennis that will inspire millions of players around the world to enjoy tennis play and keep playing. We felt it was very important to listen to what Rafa wanted and how he wanted it to be celebrated. That’s exactly what we did. People can have every opinion about whether it was right or not, but for me the most important thing was that we had a ceremony that Rafa wanted.”
So far, there has been no statement from the all-important person, namely Nadal himself. But as has been seen from the Mallorcan, who has acted modestly throughout his career, he will, as usual, be reserved with his opinion on this topic.
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Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Carlos Alcaraz
