Tennis fans worldwide hope to see Rafael Nadal in singles action during his farewell at the Davis Cup Finals, but Alex Corretja is not sure that will happen.
Nadal's last appearance was at the Six Kings Slam exhibition a month ago. That included playing his great rival Novak Djokovic for the last time. Afterward, Djokovic paid an emotional tribute to Nadal.
Since then, the 38-year-old has been preparing for the Davis Cup Finals. No one in Nadal or Spain's team has confirmed if he will play in the singles, but there have been updates about his progress.
Nadal spoke cautiously about his chances of being fit and ready. Although he did admit to feeling quite good during practice, that was far from being a definitive answer about how much he would feature at the event in Malaga.
Roberto Bautista Agut, who would very likely replace the 14-time French Open champion if he does not feel ready to play in the singles, said Nadal will decide if he can feature at the Davis Cup Finals.
There is a balancing act to be struck between giving Nadal a fitting farewell and not doing anything that might hamper Team Spain's chances of winning the Davis Cup Finals, even though Carlos Alcaraz thinks Nadal's farewell is much more important than securing the title.
The 22-time Grand Slam winner has publicly revealed he told Team Spain's captain, David Ferrer, not to make any decisions based on his retirement and only to consider what is in the team's best interests.
Andy Roddick lauded Nadal for saying that, saying it is another demonstration of what a humble champion he is. However, the American also admitted he wanted to see Nadal in singles as much as other tennis fans.
Alex Corretja cast doubt on his chances of doing that in comments to Eurosport. The two-time French Open runner-up thinks Nadal playing singles would be a risk and he might be better suited to doubles.
"Of course, it will be the decision of captain David Ferrer. The good thing with Rafa is that he’s a friend of David’s. I’m 100% sure that they have talked about it and Rafa will be honest with David about what he’s able to do – if he feels ready to play the singles, or only the doubles."
"If he plays doubles, he can play with Alcaraz but also with Marcel Granollers because we have some good specialists. We’ll see. Can he play singles? I’m not so sure because he has not played for so long in singles."
"So will he risk playing singles? Because you never know with the movements, the feeling. Probably he’ll save his energy for the doubles, but doubles can be crucial in the Davis Cup. So Rafa can add a lot of things to the team."
That might be a realistic summary from Corretja, but the tennis world will hope he is wrong. Team Spain's tie against the Netherlands will be played on Tuesday, meaning fans do not have to wait much longer to find out the scale of Nadal's involvement.
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