A bittersweet situation is brewing as Rafael Nadal prepares to bid a fond farewell to professional tennis and retire from the game he’s given so much to.
The man who has smashed through the glass ceiling to win a record 14 French Open titles will go down as one of the all-time greats of the game.
Nadal will surely get something named after him at Roland Garros in the future and in total, he’s collected a superb 22 Grand Slam titles during his career.
His battles with Roger Federer over the years have seen documentaries made, with the rivalry one of the best to ever grace sport, let alone tennis!
Alas, there is one more tournament where the Nadal fan base will get to see him in action and the Spaniard is currently preparing for the Davis Cup.
There has been much speculation over what the 37-year-old will take part in at the event with an injury scuppering his chances of a proper retirement year.
The former world number one has been doing some punditry bits at the ATP Finals for the Tennis Channel over in the United States.
It would appear that he’s privy to some inside intel when it comes to Nadal and the preparations being made by the Spain Davis Cup Team.
Courier actually thinks that Nadal will play in the singles – especially against the Netherlands in the quarter-final – with Andy Roddick agreeing that such a decision would make sense.
He told The Tennis Channel Live podcast: “We have all been wondering is Rafa going to be playing singles, is he going to be playing doubles, is he going to be playing at all when they take on the Netherlands on Tuesday?
“We don’t know for sure but sources on the inside in team Spain have been telling me that Rafa has been practising an awful lot in singles and he’s been practising for the last month with no pain in his abdomen, which has been troubling him a lot.
“Also heard he is doing a bit of singles scrimmage today with Alex de Minaur. That sounds like he is prepping for singles more than doubles to me.”
Roddick thinks playing Nadal in the singles against the Netherlands makes sense to try and combat the qualities of Botic van de Zandschulp.
He claimed: “If you are hearing that it’s no surprise and I do think if you are hearing that and you are looking at Netherlands most likely that match up is against Botic van de Zandschulp.
“You could make the argument that Rafa’s ability to expose lines on that forehand side with the lefty might be a little bit of a better match-up than against RBA, where Van De Zandschulp can create and be the aggressor.”
If Nadal has been playing without any pain in his abdomen then it could be a really exciting time to be supporting Spain at the Davis Cup.
With Carlos Alcaraz supporting him and Roberto Bautista Agut also available for selection, the Spaniards have an extremely strong team at their disposal.
The Netherlands provide Spain with a great chance to try some things out and giving Nadal the match practice in that quarter-final looks like a sound move.
It will be an extremely sad moment when the time does come for Nadal to bring the curtain down on the career and the hope will be that it comes in style with the legend holding the Davis Cup trophy aloft.
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