WATCH: Nadal Surprises Fans With Appearance At Lopez's Goodbye Event
Rafael Nadal hasn't been seen around tennis courts for a while but the Spaniard made an appearance at the 2023 Mallorca Championships to watch an old friend play.
Rafael Nadal is not playing right now on the ATP Tour due to surgery that he underwent weeks ago to address a hip issue that plagued him since this year's Australian Open. He missed Roland Garros because of it but was spotted doing various other things like hosting the graduation ceremony of the Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy alongside Iga Swiatek.
He was then spotted in the company of controversial Indian guru Sadhguru. Now he's been spotted watching a match of his good friend, Feliciano Lopez. The Spanish veteran has recently seen his name dragged up and down the social media space after presiding over some controversial choices at this year's Madrid Open.
Lopez, as the tournament director, was directly blamed for some of the things that unfolded there and he caught plenty of controversy after being named the new director of the Davis Cup as well. In any case, Lopez is saying goodbye to tennis in his native country in Mallorca playing on grass one final time.
The Spanish player loves the surface and had some of his best results on it with Nadal making the short trip from Manacor to Mallorca to watch his good friend play. Nadal and Lopez go way back having shared the court together playing for Spain in the Davis Cup many times.
Nadal was accompanied by his wife Xisca as he was seen enjoying the match and smiling as he watched his friend push back his retirement by at least another match. Lopez thanked Nadal for coming to watch the match in his speech after the match.
I was lucky that Rafa [Nadal], Marc [López] and many tennis friends came today. Some of them couldn't be here today, but they were there on Saturday [at Lopez's tennis party] and I felt very supported.
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