Rafael Nadal was not given a befitting sendoff following his first-round exit at this year's Roland Garros, and now the real reason behind it has been revealed.
Nadal faced fourth seed Alexander Zvrev in the toughest opening match of his Grand Slam career. Despite showing a consistent level in practice by beating established names like Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune, he could not keep the German at bay for long.
Zverev surfed into the French Open in great form, having won the Italian Open for a second time. He had also pushed a fit and healthy Nadal during their last meeting at the same tournament two years ago before a mid-match injury cruelly forced him to retire.
This time, he got his revenge, beating Nadal in straight sets in possibly the Spaniard's final appearance at the clay-court Grand Slam. The 14-time record champion addressed the crowd after the match without definitively confirming that it was his last match at the French Open.
Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has revealed that they planned to stage a farewell ceremony to honor Nadal's records and accomplishments at Roland Garros, something the Madrid Open did in the 37-year-old's last dance there a few weeks ago.
However, the 22-time Grand Slam champion rejected the idea from the French Open organizers because he was content with his level in practice and during the match against Zverev, suggesting he wanted to play for at least one more time.
"As you can imagine we had something planned for him. But he told us that because he doesn’t know if this is not going to be his last Roland Garros or not he wants to leave the door open for him to come back next year."
"So we’re not going to push him obviously to do anything, it’s his decision when he wants to have a proper ceremony, a proper farewell so we’re not going to do it this year. That’s his wish, even though we were ready to push the button we’re obviously going to respect what he wants and make sure we’re ready whenever he wants to do it – any time he wants."
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