Rafa Nadal’s Emotional Farewell in Madrid: A Look at His Last Match at the Mutua Madrid Open

Nadal in his last match in Madrid (EFE / Chema Moya)

Rafa Nadal has returned to the forefront of news in recent days, thanks to a more than commendable participation in the Mutua Madrid Open that is being held at the Caja Mágica. In what is expected to have been his farewell to a tournament that no one has won more times than him (five) and, therefore, to the competitions played on Spanish soil, the Balearic tennis player has not left anyone indifferent. The Manolo Santana Stadium was able to vibrate with him until the round of 16, with a match lasting more than three hours against the Argentine Pedro Cachín in the third round as more than a possible highlight.

The holder of 22 Grand Slams (second most successful man in this sense, after Novak Djokovic) also finished off the junior Darwin Blanch in the first round and took revenge on Alex de Miñaur in the second (the 11th in the world was able to beat him in the same round in Barcelona). It was the Czech Jiri Lehecka, in a match that was still very worthy of Rafa, who eliminated him in the Spanish capital. The last dance there ended with a tribute worthy of the living legend that is Nadal. Possibly, he was the only one capable of holding back his tears when the Madrid center court remembered his great milestones in one of the most notable stages of his career.

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Although it is indisputable which is the quintessential event when it comes to glossing the career of the Manacor native: Roland Garros. With 14 matches on the clay of Paris, no one has reigned in the French capital like Nadal has done since his rise to the tennis elite. Everyone hopes that he can leave the ATP circuit playing there again, both in the next major tournament of the season and in the Olympic Games, which will also be held in Rafa’s second home.

Nadal laughs at his tribute in Madrid (REUTERS/Susana Vera)

With retirement looming, it is not surprising that some of Nadal’s colleagues take advantage of the situation to share some colorful anecdotes related to the Balearic Islands. This has been the case, in the last few hours, of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, former world number five, precisely French and retired after Roland Garros 2022. The last one, how capricious is fate, that Rafa signed up to date.

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“Everyone wants to see Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros.”

Will we see the GOAT of Roland-Garros again on the Philippe-Chatrier court? In any case, this is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s wish. pic.twitter.com/56LlkyKMl8

— CLIQUE (@cliquetv) May 1, 2024

Tsonga, who played 14 times with Nadal (4-10 in favor of Rafa), spoke openly about the living myth of racket sport during an intervention on the Clique program on Canal+. “Everyone wants to see it. I want to see it. For a long time, I didn’t want to see it. “We want him to leave in the best possible way, on the track, fighting like he has always done,” he acknowledged.

“What he did at Roland Garros, 15 wins (14, actually)… In fact, I don’t even want to talk about it because it’s so… Honestly, for me, the biggest challenge in tennis was facing Nadal on clay,” he added. . It was then that he decided to share “a little anecdote about that”, to give a “funny” touch to what the challenge of facing Rafa on clay, his fetish surface, entailed.

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Tsonga and Nadal in a file image (AP)

“Before the draw was drawn, we were all praying not to run into him. We said to each other: ‘Can you imagine that you enter center court and at the end, after two sets, you still haven’t won a game?’” Tsonga revealed. He could only defeat Nadal in the semi-finals of the 2008 Australian Open, the quarter-finals of Queen’s 2011, the group stage of the 2011 ATP Finals and the semi-finals of the 2015 Shanghai Masters 1000. They last played in the quarter-finals of the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 2019.