Rafael Nadal bit his lower lip and his reddened eyes welled with tears as he stood alongside his Davis Cup teammates for Spain’s national anthem Tuesday before what he — and everyone — knew might be the last match of his career, and turned out to be a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands.
Nadal said beforehand that his feelings would need to be put on hold, that this week was about attempting to claim one last title for his country, not about pondering his impending retirement. But the 22-time Grand Slam champion acknowledged afterward that the moment got to him, that “the emotions were difficult to manage,” and that he felt nerves out there amid the roars of an adoring, sign- and flag-toting crowd that mostly showed up for one player and one player only.
And even if Spain got past the Netherlands in the best-of-three-match quarterfinals, Nadal said that if he were the team’s captain, he wouldn’t pick himself to play again in the semifinals after that performance against the 80th-ranked van de Zandschulp.
“Probably the easy move,” Nadal said with a smile, “and maybe the right move, is to change.”
At least he was in a joking mood after the result ended his 29-match winning streak in Davis Cup singles. The only other blemish on his record, which stood at 29-1 entering Tuesday, came in his debut all the way back in 2004.
“I lost my first match in the Davis Cup, and I lost my last one,” said Nadal, whose wife and son were in the stands Tuesday. “So we close the circle.”