The Davis Cup will give a special farewell to Rafa Nadal at the end of November, coinciding with the dispute of the ‘Final 8’ that will bring together the eight best countries in Malagafrom the 19th to the 24th of this month, tournament director Feliciano López announced this Tuesday.
The victor of 22 Grand Slam tournaments He is part of the Spanish team called up by captain David Ferrer to recover a trophy that Spain has not won since 2019 and that, as Nadal himself announced a few weeks ago, will be his official farewell to the courts.
López stressed that the Davis Cup is “fortunate” for being the last tournament that the 38-year-old Majorcan tennis player will play in and that is why the organization wants to offer Nadal a farewell worthy of his immense record.
“Of course, it is confidential, but we are planning to do something very special for him, we have to celebrate his career and his legacy,” declared Feliciano López in a meeting with journalists via videoconference.
“We are preparing many things, but for now we cannot give you many details, except that it will be something very special,” he insisted.
“We’re going to try to live up to his legacy and his enormous career and I hope we can do something very special for him.”
López revealed that many stars of tennis and other sports want to travel to Malaga to attend the last tournament of Nadal’s career.
“Everyone wants to be” in Malaga
“I know that almost everyone wants to be present at his farewell… Novak Djokovic posted on Instagram that he wants to attend, as does Andy Murray,” said the former Spanish tennis player.
“I don’t know if there will be places for everyone, but as you can imagine, all the tennis players who have played in their time want to be there,” he reiterated.
“Other athletes from different sports, both Spanish and from the rest of the world, also want to go, so it will be very special for Rafa.”
Despite everything, Feliciano López indicated that “the World Cup of tennis” will not remain in the background due to Nadal’s goodbye and that the Mallorcan tennis player himself will ensure that this is the case.
“By itself, the Davis Cup is so important that I don’t think this celebration overshadows the competition, especially because Rafa doesn’t want it to be that way,” López revealed.
For the person now responsible for the organization of the Davis Cup, Nadal is “without a doubt” the best Spanish athlete in history and described it as a “nice coincidence” that his final is in this tournament, where the Spaniard became known in 2004 with a victory over the American Andy Roddick in Seville that gave Spain its second Saladera and catapulted the career of the then teenage tennis player.
“Blessing for tennis”
Tickets for the round of 16 tie against the Netherlands sold out quickly and López joked that he could have filled “two halls, not one,” with resale prices of thousands of euros for a ticket to see Nadal in action for last time.
Another of the attractions of the Davis Cup could be a confrontation between Italy, current champion, and Spain, or in other words, Jannik Sinner against Carlos Alcaraz, the two tennis players called to dominate the circuit in the coming years.
“They are a blessing for tennis,” said López when referring to the two young tennis players who can star in a rivalry like the one Nadal, Djokovic and Federer had in the last two decades.
“Roger (Federer) and Rafa are out, Novak we don’t know how much he has left in the tank… We are very lucky in the tennis industry and in the world to have Sinner and Alcaraz leading the new generation of tennis players,” declared Feliciano López.
The leader explained that the preparations for the Davis Cup finals in Malaga have not been affected by the devastating floods that occurred on the Mediterranean coast last week, especially in the Valencia area, with more than 200 deaths and towns and infrastructure devastated. , but he highlighted the organization of the tournament, along with that of its women’s version (the Billie Jean King Cup) and the International Tennis Federation will make a donation to the Spanish Red Cross to help the victims.
“It is terrible and horrible to see what is happening,” López declared.
