Tuesday, November 19, 2024, 7:25 p.m.
With the Davis Cup in the background, more than 10,000 people at the Martín Carpena in Málaga and the constant shouts of “Rafa, Rafa!”, the greatest athlete in the history of Spain, Rafa Nadal, played what may be the last individual match of his career.
He could not close this chapter with victory, falling to the Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-4 and 6-4, but it is a defeat that may remain an anecdote, if Carlos Alcaraz and the doubles team he will form with Marcel Granollers come back from behind. eliminatory, and that cannot tarnish the goodbye of the best.
Nadal, accompanied by the rest of his teammates and a flag of support for Valencia, entered the entire pavilion, but soon collapsed in tears when he heard the Spanish anthem, perhaps for the last time. Those notes that have so often followed his triumphs now served as a prologue.
As soon as they stopped, the pavilion burst out singing his name, while the stands read “Thank you for everything, Rafa.” The organization also had the great gesture of introducing him during the warm-up as is usually done at Roland Garros, listing all his triumphs and with a roar from the people between Roland Garros titles.
The 14 explosions, from 2005 to 2022, were replicated by the 10,000 Spaniards in Malaga. The remaining 1,000 Dutchmen remained crouched, almost as nervous as a Van de Zandschulp who had the villain sign printed on his chest.
In his racket was the possibility of being the man to retire Nadal, the one to end a streak of 32 consecutive victories in the Davis Cup and the second man in history, after Jiri Novak, in 2005, to defeat Nadal in this singles competition.
The doubts regarding Nadal were obvious. Until this Monday night it was not known if he would play, to which must be added a period of inactivity in professional matches of almost four months. His last official match was at the Paris Olympic Games, against Djokovic, and since then he has only played two exhibition matches, against Alcaraz and again against the Serbian.
There were not too high expectations about his level, although the emotion of the moment urged us to trust in another miracle. Van de Zandschulp is not Djokovic, not even close, but the inactivity and the circumstances, a cement and indoor court, where Nadal has only won one title in his career (Madrid Masters in 2005), gave him a slight advantage, which was increasing when the game started.
Nadal was in tow, encountering the tulip serve in important moments and his inconsistencies when it was time to suffer.
Although the guy held out until 4-4, the seams showed in the first two breaking balls. He saved the first due to the Dutchman’s haste and in the second he was the one who accelerated towards the net and took a pass that minutes later translated into 6-4.
That partial was a blow for Nadal and for Málaga, who realized that Nadal, at 38 years old, suffers. Van de Zandschulp did not miss the opportunity and won the first two games of the second set.
When Nadal came out of the slump and made it 2-1, the public roared again, because they saw signs of that combative and explosive Nadal of yesteryear, but his resilience is now only maintained in sparks.
The Dutchman had 4-1 and serve and Nadal, to the delight of the public, rowed to 4-3 and 0-30. It was the last opportunity, like that shot against Djokovic in Paris to tie him from 4-0 to 4-4. However, Van de Zandschulp caught four serves in a row, stopped the comeback and took the final step towards the most important victory of his career.
Pending what happens in the rest of the tie and the rest of the tournament, this may be the last match of Rafa Nadal’s career. Alcaraz and Granollers can still cause this to change.
