The big cry was followed by the big cry-off on Saturday when Rafael Nadal joined Roger Federer in pulling out of the singles competition at the Laver Cup.
This came after the extraordinary late-night scenes at the 02 Arena, which saw the two legends in tears following their final appearance together. These scenes took place after their final appearance together. After being a part of Federer’s valedictory match, which had sparked an extraordinary outpouring of emotion, the two of them came in close to the wee hours of the morning to reflect on their participation in the event.
By that time, Nadal was on the verge of confirming that he would be flying straight home to be with his wife Xisca, who is in the final stages of a difficult pregnancy. Nadal wanted to be there for his wife while she was delivering their child.
His withdrawal, which was a major letdown for fans, did not come as a complete shock to anyone, as it is believed that his replacement, Cam Norrie, had been informed quite some time ago to get himself completely ready to step in.
It is also noteworthy that Nadal admitted that thinking about his own future has been on his mind ever since Federer announced that he would be retiring from tennis. Andy Murray, who is one year younger than Roger Federer and is currently 35 years old, expressed similar sentiments last week, and it makes one wonder how much longer it will be before there are additional tearful goodbyes to members of this extraordinary generation.
‘I’m a pretty sensitive person, I’m not worried about crying. Crying is good sometimes, you need to let go of these emotions,’ Nadal told Spanish media.
The Spaniard, who is 36 years old and has endured a long list of injuries, gave the impression that this is not the first time in recent memory that he has been thinking about passing away.
‘I was close to that moment this year, I’m not going to lie to you. During Roland Garros I thought it might be my last tournament, this is the reality.
‘From there everything went very bad physically. I injured my abs twice, at Wimbledon and in New York. It’s been a series of major misfortunes, added to these personal issues.’
Although Nadal does not know when he will play again, he has insisted that he is trying not to think about ending a career that has resulted in 22 Grand Slam victories. He did, however, acknowledge that the departure of Federer marks a turning point: ‘When Roger leaves the tour, yeah, an important part of my life is leaving too, it’s hard.’
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Although Federer’s time at the top of the game is over, it is likely that he and Nadal will compete against one another in lucrative exhibition matches in the future, provided that Federer’s knee is able to handle it; the evidence from Friday night was fairly encouraging in this regard.
Even though he was overcome with emotion as he said his goodbyes in public, he stated that it had been more difficult to tell his personal friends about the decision when it was made a month ago.
‘It was hard for me making phone calls, letting people know that this was happening,’ he said. ‘There I felt pain, but now it was all happiness. To not be alone on that court for an entire evening, it helped a lot.’
Matteo Berrettini and Cam Norrie, who were playing in place of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, respectively, continued the Laver Cup. Both of their matches were extremely close, but they came to different conclusions.
Berrettini had already defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada in three sets, 7-6, 4-6, 10-7, when the British No. 1 entered the competition.
There was not much to choose between Norrie and the American Taylor Fritz, but when the match was tied 8-8 in the deciding tiebreak, Norrie missed two groundstrokes, which led to him losing 6-1, 4-6, 10-8. As a result, the game ended up being more competitive than anyone could have anticipated, with the team point scores being tied at 4-4 going into the evening session.
