Tag: Rafael Nadal

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‘I DID MY BEST” – RAFAEL NADAL BOWS OUT OF TENNIS AFTER SPAIN DEFEAT

Spain's tennis player Rafael Nadal reacts against Netherlands' Botic Van De Zandschulp during a Davis Cup quarterfinal match at Martin Carpena Sports Hall in Malaga, southern Spain, on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Rafael Nadal soaked in the emotion of a memorable but bittersweet evening in Malaga as his professional career came to an end.

The 38-year-old opted to make the Davis Cup Finals his last event having accepted last month that his body would no longer allow him to compete at the highest level.

He was hoping for one final victory on home soil but Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp spoiled the party with a 6-4 6-4 victory, and Spain’s quarter-final elimination was confirmed after Van de Zandschulp and Wesley Koolhof defeated Carlos Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers in the deciding doubles.

The Spanish fans, some of whom had paid seven-figure sums for tickets, flocked to the Martin Carpena Arena in their thousands, draped in red and yellow flags and scarves and ready to cheer on their national hero one more time.

Nadal said at a press conference on Monday that he wanted to leave the emotion for when the end came, with his focus on trying to win Spain a sixth Davis Cup title during his long and historic career, but there were tears in his eyes during a stirring rendition of the national anthem.

“Of course it has been an emotional day, nerves before what can be my last singles match,” he said.

“Feeling the national anthem for the last time like a professional has been very special. And then of course a little bit of mixed feelings makes things a little bit more difficult.

“But that’s it. We went on court. We live that moment. I tried to do my best. I tried to, at the same time, stay as positive as possible in every single moment, to play with the right energy. It was not enough. Congrats to Botic. That’s all. He was better than me.”

It was only Nadal’s second ever Davis Cup loss in singles, with the other coming on his debut against Czech Republic’s Jiri Novak way back in 2004.

It was later the same year that Nadal sent waves through the sport by beating Andy Roddick in the final as an 18-year-old, one of 29 straight singles victories until now.

Nadal backed captain David Ferrer’s decision to pick him ahead of higher-ranked Roberto Bautista Agut but insisted there was no pressure to do so.

“Of course it hasn’t been an easy decision for the captain,” said Nadal. “But at the end I really believe that David put on the field the player who he feels that had the better chance to win.

“Because I give him, since the beginning, the input that he doesn’t need to feel any pressure to put me, honestly, and I was not sure to play. I even give him more chances to put Roberto on the field than me during the whole week.

“Probably watching that today, the decision to put me on the court as second player didn’t work.”

He admitted he was expecting to be dropped if Spain progressed, and added with a smile: “It’s in some ways good maybe if that was my last match. I lost my first match in the Davis Cup, and I lost my last one. So we close the circle.”

This was just Nadal’s eighth official tournament this season, while his only singles matches since the Olympics in July came in an exhibition event in Saudi Arabia last month.

There were glimpses of the old Nadal in some full-blooded forehands, with fist pumps and roars greeting every point won.

But Van de Zandschulp is a quality player and, although Nadal made it tight after trailing 4-1 in the second set, he could not quite conjure the old magic.

After shaking hands with his opponent, Nadal waved and blew kisses to his adoring crowd, not knowing it would be for the last time.

Alcaraz gave Spain hope with a 7-6 (0) 6-3 victory over Tallon Griekspoor, saying afterwards the win was for Nadal, who was cheering him on from the sidelines.

But Alcaraz was unable to complete the job as he and Granollers were edged out 7-6 (4) 7-5 by Van de Zandschulp and Koolhof – who does prolong his career – in a tense final doubles.

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TAYLOR FRITZ TAKES INDIAN WELLS TITLE AND ENDS RAFAEL NADAL’S 20-MATCH STREAK

Taylor Fritz Zins the BNP Paribas Open 2022 over Rafael Nadal Esp TENNIS : BNP Paribas Open 2022 - 20/03/2023 AntoineCouvercelle/Panoramic.

Taylor Fritz has snapped Rafael Nadal’s 20-match winning streak as the Californian claimed his first ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells.

There were errors from both throughout as Fritz took the first set and the pair entered a tiebreaker at the end of the second, with neither having lost one at Indian Wells this year in singles.

But it was the 24-year-old, ranked 20th, who emerged victorious to finish 6-3 7-6 (5) over the world number four, with Fritz becoming the first American to win the tournament since Andre Agassi in 2001.

Earlier, Poland’s Iga Swiatek won the women’s title with a commanding victory over Maria Sakkari.

Swiatek rose to number two in the world after a 6-4 6-1 win over her Greek opponent.

“We’ve already started a pretty cool rivalry and I think it’s going to last a few more years so it’s pretty exciting,” Swiatek said in her on-court interview.

“We’re going to play many more finals. Today was pretty crazy because of the conditions. My team did an amazing job.”

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AUSTRALIAN OPEN: NADAL BEATS MEDVEDEV TO WIN RECORD-BREAKING 21ST GRAND SLAM TITLE

Rafael Nadal has won a record-breaking 21st grand slam title, beating Daniil Medvedev 2-6 6-7 (5) 6-4 6-4 7-5 in the Australian Open tennis men’s singles final.

Most of the build-up focused on the historic significance of the Spaniard bidding for his 21st grand slam title, but he found himself under pressure from the start on Rod Laver Arena.

Medvedev stamped his authority on the final by dominating the first set. Nadal saved two break points in a long third game but was then broken to love in the fifth as Medvedev, who was booed onto court by a section of the crowd, proved the steadier from the baseline.

Successive double faults then contributed to a second straight break and Medvedev served out the set 6-2.

There were dramatic scenes with Nadal facing break point serving for the second set at 5-3 when a man waving a banner jumped out of the crowd and down onto the court.

He was only metres from Medvedev but was immediately tackled by several security men and hauled away before the match resumed.

Nadal began to play more offensively in the second set and twice managed to break the Medvedev serve.

But holding his own proved a constant challenge and Medvedev twice responded, saving a set point at 5-3 before hitting back to level.

Into a tie-break they went, and again Nadal led 5-3, but this time Medvedev produced a sequence of fine points to take it 7-5, ending it with a backhand pass and taunting the crowd, who responded with boos.

Nadal had not recovered from two sets down to win a match since beating Mikhail Youzhny at Wimbledon in 2007, while he faded physically after the first two sets against Denis Shapovalov and Matteo Berrettini here.

But his competitive desire has never been in doubt and recovering from 0-40 at 2-3 in third set to hold galvanised the Spaniard.

With Medvedev beginning to look weary and muddled in his shot selection, Nadal pounced at 4-4 before serving out the set 6-4.

Medvedev was allowing himself to become increasingly wound up by the crowd, appealing repeatedly to umpire John Blom to control the “idiots”.

His mood was not improved when he double-faulted to drop serve in the third game of the fourth set and, although he got back on terms immediately, Nadal took his seventh break point in the next game.

Nadal created a set point on his opponent’s serve at 5-3, which Medvedev saved, but the 20-time grand slam champion took it 6-4 on his own serve to level the contest.

Both men headed off court for a bathroom break but Medvedev could not break Nadal’s momentum, a trademark forehand passing shot from the Spaniard giving him a 3-2 lead in the deciding set.

The Russian had three chances to break back in the next game but could not take any of them and Nadal was two points away at 30-0 serving at 5-4.

But a double fault proved costly – and betrayed the tension of the moment – and a netted backhand from Nadal saw Medvedev break back for 5-5.

The Russian, though, could not hold his own serve, giving Nadal a second chance to serve for it.

This time he did not falter, bringing up three match points and clinching it 2-6 6-7 (5) 6-4 6-4 7-5 after five hours and 24 minutes at 1.11am local time.

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NOVAK DJOKOVIC OVERCOMES RAFAEL NADAL IN FRENCH OPEN CLASSIC TO REACH FINAL

Rafael Nadal was beaten for just the third time at the French Open as Novak Djokovic won an extraordinary semi-final on a night of sporting drama at Roland Garros.

The great Spaniard went into the contest having won 105 of his previous 107 matches on the Parisian clay, losing only to Robin Soderling in the fourth round in 2009 and Djokovic in the last eight six years ago.

He had won all 13 of his previous semi-finals but, in a 58th match between the pair that was on a par with almost any that came before, Djokovic found the answers to the greatest challenge in sport to win 3-6 6-3 7-6 (4) 6-2.

It is the world number one who will take on Stefanos Tsitsipas – winner of a five-set contest with Alexander Zverev earlier on Friday – in the final on Sunday, bidding for a 19th grand slam title and to become the first man in the Open era to win each title at least twice.

Nadal had been trying to claim the outright men’s record with 21 slam titles and went in as a clear, albeit narrow, favourite, particularly given his drubbing of Djokovic in the final last October.

The first five games were a near carbon copy of that match, with Nadal finding the answer to everything Djokovic could throw at him and moving into a 5-0 lead, but from there it swerved off in a completely different direction entirely.

Djokovic not only avoided the love set but pulled three games back, sowing a few seeds of doubt in Nadal’s mind before the Spaniard took his seventh set point.

Those doubts were evident as Djokovic moved into a 2-0 lead and then, after Nadal had broken back, a 4-2 advantage.

The next game summed up what makes contests between these two some of the best in all sport. The points were spellbinding, the athleticism mind-blowing, with both men not only trying to deploy their weapons but to prevent the other doing likewise.

Nadal had three chances to break back but was denied on each occasion, as he was two games later when Djokovic served for the set, the Spaniard missing a routine backhand on break point and paying the penalty.

There was no doubt Djokovic was in the ascendancy and yet this was Nadal on clay in Paris and, as the Serbian knows better than anyone having lost to him here seven times, there is no tougher challenge.

A Djokovic break for 3-2 in the third set was immediately snuffed out by Nadal but the effort of doing so took it out of the 35-year-old, who promptly dropped his serve to love.

Djokovic survived another long game to hold for 5-3 and was at 30-0 trying to serve it out but one moment of hesitation was all it took to give Nadal hope and back stormed the champion with four points in a row.

Both men were showing understandable signs of fatigue but somehow they engineered even more outlandish points, with Nadal fighting off break points to hold for 6-5 and then creating a set point only for Djokovic to save with a precision drop shot.

As in last year’s final, the tactic had been more foe than friend but, at the biggest moment of the match thus far, it came to his rescue.

The tie-break was nip and tuck until Nadal, normally the most solid of volleyers, put one long at 4-3 that would have left a club player with head in hands.

Djokovic was not so charitable and, for just the fifth time at Roland Garros, Nadal lost a second set in a match.

The biggest cheer of the night came with the announcement that the fans, who had been expected to be ejected to comply with Paris’ 11pm curfew, were in fact being allowed to stay.

Nadal made a statement with a break to start the fourth set but it was Djokovic who was in control of more of the points and, for once, the champion had no answer

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RAFAEL NADAL SAVES MATCH POINT EN ROUTE BARCELONA OPEN VICTORY

Rafael Nadal saved match point in a pulsating final against Stefanos Tsitsipas to win his 12th Barcelona Open title.

Nadal had only lost one set in 11 previous finals in Catalonia and had never lost a clay-court final having held a match point.

He had two in the second set but a combination of some uncharacteristic misses from the Spaniard and brilliant play from his opponent helped Tsitsipas turn the match around.

The Greek had his own chance to clinch back-to-back titles having won his maiden Masters crown in Monte-Carlo last week when he held match point at 5-4 in the decider.

But Nadal dug deep, broke the Tsitsipas serve in the next game and battled his way to a 6-4 6-7 (6) 7-5 victory in three hours and 38 minutes.

Tsitsipas, who recovered from two sets down to beat the Spaniard at the Australian Open, made a brilliant start to the match, striking winners apparently at will, breaking Nadal’s serve and pushing for a second break.

But the Spaniard, as he has done so many times before, weathered the storm, began sewing doubt into his opponent’s mind by relentlessly targeting his backhand and turned the match around.

He won four games in a row from 2-4 to take the opening set, and then again came from a break down in the second set after Tsitsipas had regrouped well.

That took him to the brink of victory on the court named after him but Tsitsipas showed his own mettle to stay in the contest, recovering from 15-40 at 4-5 with two fine points, including a lovely touch volley winner on the second.

A topsy-turvy tie-break saw Nadal lead 4-2 then save two set points from 4-6 only to serve a double fault at 6-6 that helped Tsitsipas clinch it.

The third was serve dominated until 4-5, when Nadal wobbled on his own delivery, but ultimately it was the Spaniard who proved just the tougher.