Five hours before the start of the competition, the most anticipated news was leaked. Rafa Nadal would play the first match of the quarterfinal tie against the Netherlands. Equal parts excitement and excitement but also responsibility for not disappointing the Spanish fans who idolize him and who came to the Martín Carpena in Málaga from all over the country to witness a bitter end.
Twenty years after his debut in 2004, Rafa Nadal says goodbye to a professional career marked by successes in the Davis Cup, a competition that he already won that year in Seville. This time he does it in another Andalusian city, Malaga, which from the first moment has surrendered to its unmatched magnetism.
The Balearic tennis player, with two Olympic golds and 92 titles in his record, twenty-two of them Grand Slams (14 Roland Garros, 2 Australian Opens, 4 United States Opens and 2 Wimbledon), opened the Cup quarter-final tie Davis against Netherlands. He did it against Botic van de Zandschulp, in a duel in which he never seemed comfortable, he made mistakes in the first set that undermined him and ended up being surpassed by an opponent who found his weak points easy. In the end, 6-4 and 6-4 in one hour and fifty-two minutes.
This Rafa Nadal match at the Martín Carpena was the first individual match in almost three months, since July 29, when he lost to the Serbian Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Paris Olympic Games. Two days after that fateful day, July 31, he also said goodbye to the French capital, the one that has given him such good times, losing alongside Carlos Alcaraz in the doubles at the Games against the Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.
In Malaga, with a dedicated fan base and surrounded by his family and entire coaching staff in one of the pools, although without Novak Djokovic, who had promised to be in the stands but couldn’t, Nadal experienced a special day for which he had been preparing. weeks.
He arrived in the Andalusian city five days before the premiere, enough time to become aware of his farewell and to take the pulse of the Martín Carpena track, which he tested before the debut with the Australian Alex de Miñaur and his partner and friend Carlos Alcaraz . In training he showed a good level and a lot of concentration. It was his farewell and nothing should go wrong.
For this, the venue and the surrounding area were decorated with celebration and gratitude. “Thank you, Rafa,” could be read on a huge blue canvas on one of the facades of the Ciudad de Málaga stadium, adjacent to the Martín Carpena.
The expectation for Nadal’s match, with the question of whether it would be the last or if there would be one more, exceeded expectations. The venue was filled with its 10,700 seats, despite it being a working Tuesday at five in the afternoon, and from the previous days and until a few minutes before the match the resale was operating with exorbitant prices of several thousand euros for the tie.
Nadal’s entrance onto the court was big. Incessant applause, the fans chanting his name and the Balearic Islander with glassy eyes and visibly excited during the national anthem.
The afternoon promised emotions and did not disappoint. The chants of ‘Vamos Rafa’ and ‘sí se puede’ were constant from all parts of the pavilion but it was not Nadal’s day. The 29-year-old Dutch tennis player, nine years younger than him, did his best and ended up winning the match.
Nadal resigned himself to defeat but before going to the locker room, and with the fans dedicated, he approached the center of the court, opened his arms and thanked the audience for their support. He also said goodbye. He did it excitedly and became ‘eternal’, as some fan told him in one of those silences between serves.
