No, we’re not crying, we just have a Rafael Nadal in our eye. The man who played an entire career with one and a half feet (in 2005 doctors told him that there was a real possibility that he would have to stop playing tennis), who was able to become myth and legend not for the bulletin board but due to the way he filled it, he announced yesterday that the Davis Cup final eight scheduled in Malaga from November 19th will be his last tournament. The good champion, the tennis player who played 116 matches at Roland Garros, losing only 4, said enough, probably closing the greatest era ever for lovers of the racket. News in the air.

The last year

Nadal attempted yet another sumptuous comeback this year. He played very well in Madrid, he climbed to the final of Bastad, but the almost two years of absence and the after-effects of the operation to repair a lesion to the left iliopsoas, operated in 2023, accelerated the farewell step. Difficult task to tell Rafa’s impact on tennis and sport. The risk of plundering adjectives is high and typhoid, as we Italians know well, navigates between bell towers and tantrums. Yet, it’s impossible not to love someone like Rafa. It is enough to start the sentence with “the most”, the rest is a long list. The greatest fighter in the history of tennis, the greatest clay player and the greatest left-hander (sorry Rod). As for the greatest tennis player of all time, the debate remains and will always remain open, and everyone will reel off numbers and arguments in support of one or the other thesis. The “Nadalians” will focus on the finals and the comparisons between the Big Three in the four most important tournaments, where Rafa is in front with both Roger and Nole. The “Federians” on the perfection of the Swiss, for many another way of saying tennis. You can recognize Djokovic fans from afar because they travel with a number, 24, the size of a 60-inch TV. But when assessing his ability to dominate on his favorite hunting ground, Nadal has dictated more on clay than Federer did on grass and Djokovic did on hard. Looking at the obstacles they had to overcome during their journey to the top, the Spaniard – and he would have gladly done without it – has the record for separation with all the injuries he has suffered. He will leave with 22 Slams, 92 ATP titles, two Olympic golds, five Salad Bowls and the knowledge that the numbers say a lot, but not everything.

The desire to compete

Rafa contrasted his friend Roger’s class and Djoker’s desire to accumulate records and honors with his indomitable desire to compete. If the fate of the world depended on a tennis match, I would make Rafael Nadal play it, every day of the week and weekends included. On clay, on Philippe Chatrier, and I would tell him it’s a final. I would choose him not for the certainty of success, but because he would play every single point to the best of his ability for an hour, a day and even a week if necessary. Without insulting his staff or inviting him to leave the stadium (in his 20 career he hasn’t made a mistake, not even a single gesture, not even an adverb), and without putting his finger to his ear to call for applause from the public: Rafa has never needed to incite the crowd. From Barcelona to London, from Melbourne to Rome, from Paris to New York people have always been on his side. I would choose Rafa because he would take the field with the best possible attitude and refuse defeat until the end. Not out of a delirium of omnipotence and boundless ambition. But because he has always respected his work, his team, the game and because he loves competition more than records. At the end of one of his two famous comebacks against Medvedev, in 2019 at the ATP Finals (he was down 5-1 in the third set with match point for the Russian), he explained that «the example to give to young people is not to succeed in a comeback . The example is not to break your racket when you are down 5-1 in the third, not to lose control when things go wrong, not to get discouraged. And accept that your opponent is playing better than you.”

Big businesses

Nadal has also achieved some of the greatest feats in the sport, perhaps the greatest. Defeating Roger Federer at the peak of his career on the Center Court of Wimbledon, 2008, the final of the finals. It’s as if someone managed to beat him when he was 27-28 years old in the final act of Roland Garros: no one even came close. 14 triumphs in Paris, certainly the toughest Slam, in as many finals. The phrase “records are made to be broken” applies to many records, not this one. On clay he was the King, but it was on the other courts that he transformed into a legend, winning everywhere and recovering every time from injuries that could have put an end to his dreams and our happy Sundays. At 15 he won his first match on the major circuit, at 18 he lifted his first Davis Cup, at 19 his first Slam, at 22 he uprooted Federer from the top and became the twenty-fourth ATP number one, at 24 he completed the Career Grand Slam , then repeated in 2022. Rafa will also be remembered for the immense quality of his tennis, an aspect that is, yes, sometimes underestimated.

Rafa’s hand

Rafa’s “hand” must be included among the most polite of anyone who has held a racket. Even today, on the circuit, everyone agrees that the best volleys are his: «If you also ask the other players, practically everyone will tell you that he is one of the best volley players because since the last time he missed a volley I think seven years have passed”, said Dominic Thiem some time ago. On the other hand, the Majorcan could not have spent 596 weeks in total in the top 2, more than anyone else, without complete tennis. Then, of course, the left-handed hook has sent at least two generations of tennis players into retirement. When Nadal moved to the forehand and took control of the exchange, it became difficult to imagine getting out alive. The character, the comebacks, the forehand and all the incredible shots in his arsenal, the example, the victories. Nadal has transcended the world of tennis and, once his career is over, after the Malaga finals, we will need to find a place for him in history among the legends of every sport, such as Roger, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Pelè, Tiger Woods and very few others. How did you manage to win this match? They ask him after the historic success at the 2022 Australian Open against Medvedev. His answer should be hung in all schools, because it contains the spirit with which we should all face the challenges to chase our dreams: «Love for the game, passion, positive attitude and willingness to work. And the right people next to me every single day. I think that’s all.”