Rafael Nadal bid a tearful adieu to the game of tennis that he lit up with his personality as much as he did with his play. The Spaniard may not have been as supremely gifted as Roger Federer with whom he shared an epic rivalry on court. Nor was he as dexterously athletic as Novak Djokovic who surpassed him and Federer in terms of Grand Slam wins. But Nadal outshone both musketeers for sheer effort of a sportsman wedded to his craft and who played tennis with a laser-like focus.
Not endowed with the dulcet touch of the most talented, Nadal still left a record that any champion in men’s tennis history would be proud of — 22 Grand Slams, including 14 on red shale that inside the fortress-like Roland Garros he made his territory, two Olympic gold medals and five Davis Cup triumphs with the Spanish national team, 209 weeks as world no. 1 and such a reputation for sportsmanship to the extent he had never been guilty of smashing a tennis racquet on the ground in his whole career.
Nadal’s never-say-die spirit was exemplary. Beyond the physical and mental effort of being a tuned-to-the-minute athlete having to call consistently upon all his skills match after match while having silently overcome the most incapacitating of sporting injuries, it was his humility that was truly astonishing in a champion. “The world will continue exactly as it is without you,” he has been quoted as saying in explaining the meaning of his disarming humbleness.
The ringing shouts of “Rafa, Rafa” in Malaga, Spain, must have carried such a frisson that Nadal was overcome with emotion in this moment of a public farewell. The sport will remember for long the ferociousness of his forehand as much as his indefatigable energy to get to the ball and get it across the net with pace as well as guile. His was a truly inspirational career marked as much by success and riches as the sporting spirit with which he played tennis.
