Rafael Nadal's tennis career officially ended with Spain's loss to the Netherlands at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, as Carlos Alcaraz couldn't complete a heroic comeback.
With the score tied at 1-1 after the first two singles matches, there was only one way to settle the tie between the Netherlands and Spain in Malaga, and that was a doubles match.
Rafael Nadal lost his singles match, after which Spain trailed 0-1. But Alcaraz came to the rescue in his singles match, beating Tallon Griekspoor to keep the country's and Nadal's hopes alive.
But there was a mammoth task ahead of the 21-year-old Spaniard. To send Spain to the semi-finals of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, he had to dress up again and play in doubles, which he doesn't have a lot of experience with.
His partner was the current World No. 4 and former World No. 1 doubles player, Marcel Granollers, and the duo took on Botic van de Zandschulp and Wesley Koolhof, who is also the former World No. 1, currently ranked 8th in the world, and chose to end his tennis career after the Davis Cup Finals.
In the first set, there was very little between the two teams. Spain had the first break point, already in the second game of the match, but they couldn't use their chance. Only a few games later, the Spanish team had to face a break point, but they, too, saved it.
The Dutch team then couldn't create any more break point chances in the remainder of the set, but the opposite was true for their opponents. Alcaraz and Granollers first didn't use a break point in the eighth game, but that could have been forgotten had they converted a break point, which was also a set point when they led 5-4.
They couldn't do that, and because of that, the first set had to be decided in a tie-break. Koolhof and Van de Zandschulp were the better team in that tie-break, winning it 7-4 after 70 minutes of play in the first set.
After losing the first set, the Spanish duo was determined to turn the match around, and they started perfectly. Already in the third game, they broke their opponents' serve to lead 2-1, and after saving a break point in the following game, they increased their lead already to 3-1.
But Alcaraz and Granollers started to struggle after that. Their opponents were much better and broke back to level the score at 4-4. Koolhof, in particular, was very impressive, and even if he had decided to retire from the sport, this match might have proven him wrong in that decision, as he was the best player on the court for the vast majority of the match.
The Dutch team was only two points away from winning the match at 5-4 and 30-0, but their opponents won four points in a row. However, a couple of games later, the Spanish team was in trouble again, with their opponents leading 30-15 again, coming two points away from winning once more.
But with Granollers serving, the Spanish team forced yet another tie-break, which Koolhof started with an ace. Alcaraz was able to respond with some good serving as well, forcing both of his opponents into an error on the return.
With both teams serving well, they changed sites at 3-3, but the Spanish team blinked first, falling behind 3-4. They weren't able to recover from that deficit, losing the match 6-7(4), 6-7(3), which means that Spain is out of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, which also officially ended Rafael Nadal's career. A legendary career.