Nadal's Retirement Compared To Graf's By Serena Williams' Ex-Coach
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Rafael Nadal's retirement ceremony at the Davis Cup Finals received some criticism, but Serena Williams' ex-coach, Rennae Stubbs, thinks he is more low-key than some other tennis legends, comparing him to Steffi Graf.
Nadal played his final professional match at the Davis Cup Finals against the Netherlands' Botic van de Zandschulp. Unfortunately for the passionate home crowd in Malaga, he lost in straight sets.
Carlos Alcaraz took the quarterfinal tie to a decider, but Nadal's career officially ended after van de Zandschulp and Marcel Granollers beat Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers to eliminate Team Spain.
Nadal's retirement ceremony followed. He addressed the crowd for slightly over ten minutes before a video containing brief tributes from various athletes, including Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, was played.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion ended by saying he hoped to be remembered as a good person from a small village in Malaga rather than just for the numerous titles he won before the ceremony ended.
While there was much emotion throughout, some significant figures in Nadal's life criticized the ceremony. Rafael's uncle and former coach, Toni Nadal, admitted it did not meet his expectations.
Carlos Moya, who became Nadal's sole coach after Toni left the team, spoke even more bluntly. He believes the ceremony was shabby and not a fitting celebration of one of the most iconic athletes ever.
Spanish Davis Cup captain David Ferrer lamented Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic's absence from the stadium for Nadal's farewell, as they were his two most significant rivals over the years.
Djokovic had promised to attend Nadal's final tournament and has yet to comment about why that did not occur. Federer, a friend of Nadal's, wrote him a heartwarming message on the morning of what turned out to be his last day as a professional but was not inside the stadium.
In an episode of the Rennae Stubbs Podcast, Williams' ex-coach said Nadal's more low-key ending is similar to that of fellow 22-time Grand Slam champion Graf and that he has a different personality from Williams and Federer.
"It’s like Steffi. It’s interesting because Steffi just dropped the mic and walked away because she was hurting. Her body was hurting, her knee was hurting, her foot was hurting, her back was hurting. She was in love. She’d just met Andre, and they were dating, but she was different so she just stopped.'"
"She just walked away, but she’s very different to these personalities. She didn’t love the spotlight, she just loved playing. I think Rafa is more similar to Steffi than Roger or Novak or Andy."
"Even the way he retired, just the whole circumstances around it, it was more about playing at home, being with his family, there was no other players there. There was just his teammates and it was kind of low-key and it was kind of like for Rafa that was enough."
"For Steffi it was like, 'Yeah, I don’t need all that pomp and ceremony.' The first thing I said to her when she told me she was retiring, I was like,'Wait what? The US Open is in like three weeks. Why don’t you do it there?' And she’s like, 'Nah, I’m good.'"
