Rafael Nadal made an emotional exit from tennis on Tuesday evening, as his legendary profession got here to an finish on the Davis Cup.
The 38-year-old opted to make the occasion in Malaga his final, having accepted final month that he can now not compete on the highest stage.
4
Nadal hoped for one ultimate victory on residence soil however Botic van de Zandschulp spoiled the get together with a 6-4 6-4 victory, and Spain’s quarter-final elimination was confirmed after defeat within the doubles.
Bowing out, the 22-time Grand Slam singles winner mentioned he has now ‘closed the circle’ on his time in tennis.
“It’s in some methods good, possibly, if that was my final match,” he mentioned.
“I misplaced my first match within the Davis Cup, and I misplaced my final one. So we shut the circle.”
After emotional scenes on Tuesday evening, Nadal steps away a legend, ending his profession greater than 22 years after all of it started on the ATP Tour in April 2002 – when he was simply 15-years-old.
Ranked No. 762 on the earth again then, he obtained a wild card to the ATP 250 occasion on his residence island of Mallorca, and stepped on court docket for his debut.
His opponent that day was Paraguay’s Ramon Delgado, who was ranked World No. 81 on the time and had gone as excessive as No. 52 a couple of years earlier.
However in what was an indication of issues to return, Nadal merely blew him away on clay.
The Spaniard broke serve 5 instances to defeat his 25-year-old opponent 6-4, 6-4, in below one and a half hours, saying himself on the ATP stage.
“I actually wished to go on the market and play nicely,” Nadal mentioned afterwards.
4
“I knew it was going to be troublesome, however I held my recreation. I believed I performed nicely, retaining the ball deep and sustaining the facility.”
At 15 years and 10 months, Nadal grew to become the ninth participant within the Open Period to win an ATP match earlier than turning 16.
Delgado went on to open up on enjoying {the teenager} who grew to become a legend, admitting Nadal was a ‘phenomenal’ competitor even manner again then.
“I did not assume I may lose as a result of I did not think about he might be so good,” Delgado mentioned.
“We’re speaking a couple of 15-year-old boy who was already a phenomenon. He defended, he had depth, he recovered very troublesome balls. It was out of the abnormal.
“I believed, ‘This man is completely different.’ Till the top I believed I used to be going to finish up beating him by expertise.
4
4
“But it surely was difficult for me, I got here with out confidence. And he took benefit.”
Whereas the defeat would have turned heads on the time, it was solely an indication of what was to return for Nadal.
He jumped nearly 200 locations on the earth rankings and went on to say six Future Tour titles in a row that 12 months.
The remaining, after all, is historical past.
Delgado, in the meantime, by no means fairly reached the dizzying heights that his opponent did.
The Paraguayan by no means received a title enjoying both singles or doubles, and didn’t make it past the fourth spherical in any of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments.
He did have a couple of moments within the solar and maybe his best win got here on the French Open in 1998.
Within the second spherical, he pulled off a shock of his personal by beating primary seed Pete Sampras in straight units.
Delgado retired in 2011 having achieved a career-high rating of 52 and began teaching shortly after he completed enjoying.