Tennis lovers will remember the scene.
It is September 2022 and Roger Federer breaks down in tears at the O2 in London. This is his last match in the Laver Cup, his last match as a tennis player actually. He is saying goodbye to the audience: he will not dance on a tennis court again.
How that loss hurts!
Federer cries and at his side, also broken down, Rafael Nadal (37) cries. Contemplating him, fans wonder:
–Is Nadal behind?
A year and a half has passed and, true, now we know that Nadal is behind Federer: his career is coming to an end.
(Without going any further, last week he announced in Barcelona that he will not compete for a Godó trophy again).
What we don’t know is when: when will Nadal retire?
And here we enter the territory of assumptions, because, for sure, it is likely that not even he knows.
The doomsayers go around with the forecasts.
They’ve been like this for weeks.
–Nadal will retire in Barcelona –some said.
–I think he will do it at Roland Garros –others.
–He plans to reach the Paris Games –the third ones.
–Whenever, but let it be now –the most bitter spirits have been uprooted, those who do not assume that a talent like Nadal has earned the power to decide, for himself, goodbye.
(…)
Yesterday, the Manacor native gave us some clues. If he retires definitively this year, he will not do so in Paris, where he shows off his steel sculpture, 2.60 m high. He will not do it at Roland Garros, nor at the Olympic Games (and here the exciting adventure of a Nadal-Alcaraz duo gains strength, a proposal that the Murcian blesses without hesitation).
If Nadal leaves, perhaps he will do so in the fall, in Berlin, the scene of the next Laver Cup (September 20 to 22): he has already announced that, in those days, he plans to jump to the Uber Arena.
Yesterday he said:
–At this point in my career, I want to go out there and take advantage of every opportunity that is offered to me.
And the opportunity has been given to him by Bjorn Borg.
Borg is the captain of the European Laver Cup team. This is his fourth edition in the position. He had already been there in that Federer goodbye, and he continues to be there now.
(If we remember Borg, we must associate his name with that of John McEnroe: there are videos, documentaries, comparative literature and a film about it; in fact McEnroe remains the antithesis of the Swede, he captains the American Laver Cup team).
Borg has already selected four of its six members, and among them are Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Sasha Zverev and Rafael Nadal.
Nadal, for Borg, is tennis history. Just as Borg is, to all of us.
–Rafa is a legend of our sport, a champion in the broadest sense of the word –said Borg–. This is going to be my last year as captain. Having him on Team Europe was one of my goals and I am amazed because he has accepted my invitation and will be in Berlin.
The news tells us that the Manacor native is rediscovering himself as a tennis player. We were able to see it in recent days in Barcelona. We saw him testing himself, playing in the RCTB, hitting hard with David Jordà and Andréi Rublev. And then, with an audience in the stands, defeating Flavio Cobolli and facing Alex de Miñaur.
From the experience, Nadal has emerged stronger. Despite his obvious shortcomings on the serve (“I’ve barely been able to work on it in recent months, I shouldn’t take any risks on the abdominals yet”), he feels competitive and in a position to continue forward in his crazy race towards infinity.
Yesterday he learned that this Thursday, at the Mutua Madrid Open, the American Darwin Blanch awaits him.
Blanch is number 1,028 in the world and is 16 years old.
The chronicler wonders what must be going through the teenager’s mind.
How will he sleep thinking that an autumn legend awaits him, a guy who already had three Roland Garros titles when he was not even born?
