Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Friday November 22, 2024 at 7:36 p.m.
Questioned the day after Spain's elimination against the Netherlands during an evening marked by the farewell of Rafael Nadal, who had just played his very last match, David Ferrer, the captain of La Roja, admitted that he was expecting a tribute other than the one that was paid directly to the Spanish legend.
Rafael Nadal deserved a colossal tribute worthy of his extraordinary career. This was not the case, believes David Ferrer, who did not hide after the elimination of his team during this final phase of the Davis Cup which is played until the end of the week in Malaga that he expected a ceremony of a larger scale, even if the context, with this last match of the Spanish legend played at the start of the week, did not necessarily lend itself to it. In the columns of the newspaper El Partizado del Cope, the captain of this Roja surprised by the Netherlands in his first match in which Nadal had played the first singles (lost to Botic van de Zandschulp) but not the doubles (Granollers had been favorite) after Carlos Alcaraz tied the two teams, did not hide his disappointment. The former Roland-Garros semi-finalist even goes so far as to say he is “sad” about these farewells organized for the farewell of the best clay court player of all time. “The farewell of someone as important as Rafa was decaffeinated. Perhaps he was missing very important people in his tennis career and people who were equally important in terms of opponents and team, and who were perhaps not mentioned enough I regretted that these people were highlighted (…) The farewells were said with the best intentions, it was after the defeat and in haste. … It was a little sad.”
Ferrer: “I missed Federer, Djokovic and Gasol”
Ferrer says he is all the more disappointed as he is certain that the next tributes to be paid to the now retired man will be of a different ilk. “Rafa is going to have certain tributes in big tournaments for a long time, as I imagine will be the case in Grand Slam tournaments. From a professional point of view, it was his last match and I missed that. ” Just as the former world number 3 missed the presence of other legends. “I missed Federer, Djokovic, Gasol, who is a close friend…” For Ferrer, the main thing nevertheless remains elsewhere. “Rafa’s greatness is not going to change with a better or worse tribute.”
