The president of the International Tennis Federation, David Haggerty, has defended Rafael Nadal's much-criticized retirement ceremony at the Davis Cup Finals and insisted it was what the 14-time French Open champion wanted.
Nadal's farewell appearance at the Davis Cup Finals ended earlier than he and millions of fans worldwide hoped. Carlos Alcaraz was among those who wanted to honor his legacy by winning the Davis Cup.
Team Netherlands had other ideas. The Dutchman were the underdogs for the tie, but they made a mockery of that by pulling off a stunning upset in Malaga with some majestic tennis.
Nadal lost the final singles match of his career against Botic van de Zandschulp. Some criticized Spanish captain David Ferrer's decision to play the 38-year-old in the singles instead of Roberto Bautista Agut, but it is easy to argue that with hindsight.
A passionate Carlos Alcaraz, spurred on by wanting to succeed for Nadal, won the other singles match against Tallon Griekspoor. However, an inspired Wesley Koolhof and Botic van de Zandschulp beat Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers to eliminate Team Spain.
Nadal's retirement ceremony followed. He began by addressing the crowd for slightly over ten minutes before a video tribute containing short messages from various stars, including his great rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, was played.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion then stated he would like to be remembered as a good person before saying one final goodbye to the fans and his teammates and leaving the court for the final time as a professional player.
Some important figures in Nadal's life expressed disdain for the ceremony. Carlos Moya, his senior coach from 2017 until retirement, called it shabby, and the former ATP world No. 1's uncle and former coach, Toni Nadal, said it did not meet his expectations.
Team Spain's captain, Ferrer, was unhappy about Federer and Djokovic's absence from the ceremony and believes it felt watered down. Nadal and Djokovic's presence for Federer's farewell made it especially disappointing that the favor was not returned.
While acknowledging that people are entitled to their opinion, Haggerty refused to apologize for Nadal's retirement ceremony when speaking to the press, outlining how the tennis legend had been consulted about it.
"Rafa is an amazing player and has a legacy of tennis that he will leave behind, inspiring millions of players around the world to play tennis, to continue to play. We felt it was very important to listen to what Rafa wanted and how he wanted to be celebrated. That’s exactly what we did."
"We took his lead, and we delivered on that. People can have whatever opinions they want of whether it was right or not, but to me, the most important thing was we delivered a ceremony that was what Rafa wanted — and, being who he is, was a great evening, and it was much appreciated."
Nadal has yet to comment on whether he was happy with the ceremony. It would be interesting to know whether the two-time Wimbledon winner agreed that the ceremony was what he wanted.