Credits: Nike/X
Tributes poured in from all corners of the world as tennis great Rafael Nadal played his last match. Nadal announced his retirement from tennis earlier in October and revealed that the Davis Cup Final would be his last tournament. On November 19, the Spaniard bid farewell to professional tennis in Malaga, Spain as he lost the quarterfinal clash of the tournament. Nadal was handed a 4-6, 4-6 loss by Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarterfinal as the Netherlands took a 1-0 lead against Spain.
This was Nadal’s first official match since the Paris Olympics where he lost to Novak Djokovic. He came into the tournament by winning 29 successive matches in a row in the Davis Cup. It was way back in 2004 when a 17-year-old Rafael lost his only match in the tournament and his winning streak came to an end.
X gets emotional as Rafael Nadal retires from professional tennis
As soon as Nadal lost his quarter-final clash against the Dutch, X got flooded with emotional messages for the 22-time Major winner. Here are some reactions.
Nadal is the third name from the Big four of tennis to announce farewell. The other three from the lot are Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
