“I-ta-lia, I-ta-lia,” roared the Martin Carpena When Feliciano Lopez sits down in his guts to talk with OKDIARIO about a competition, the Davis Cup 2024which leaned towards the Azzurri for the second consecutive edition. The Toledo native retired from tennis last year, after a unique career in which he adopted grass as his favorite surface instead of the traditional setting of Spanish tennis promoted by Nadal, clay.
Currently it is the director of the final of the tournament which made Malaga the nerve center of the racket for a week. On the Costa del Sol One more season of tennis in general and the last of Rafa Nadal in particular has been sealed. The Spaniard ended a journey with the 23-year-old racket whose last stop, Malaga, was shorter than expected.
All of Spain had Friday November 22 marked on its calendar. We thought it would be the day of the tribute to Nadal. The expected progress of the Davis Cup was marked as such. At least the logic was that Spain eliminated the Netherlands and reached the semi-finals on the aforementioned day, but they came out facing. The Navy ran aground and was wiped off the map at the first opportunity.
“The tournament was a success. This year has been a big challenge. We hosted both competitions at the same time. Malaga made a huge effort. The Spanish defeat remains a bad taste in the mouth, but in the end, when you compete at the highest level, you can’t take things for granted. Spain had, a priori, an affordable draw, we expected that they could advance. Many people expected to see Spain for more than a day in Malaga. And then Rafa said goodbye to us, which, even though we knew it was going to happen, is always sad,” Feliciano explains in his conversation with this newspaper.
Tribute to Nadal before his time
Spain’s premature elimination gave rise to a tribute to Nadal whose sensation was that of to have developed in fits and starts. “Everything was a little scruffy and in bad shape,” summed up Carlos Moyá, Rafa Nadal’s coach. “I expected something that would live up to my nephew’s career,” said Toni Nadal, Rafa’s uncle and former coach. “It was cold. I missed a lot of people,” described David Ferrer, captain of the Spanish team.
“A player like Rafa eclipses all world competitions. It’s not that it’s above any tournament, I don’t know if that’s the best way to put it, but, in reality, it is. His retirement is a global sporting event. It transcended sports. We only talked about it for several days. Honestly, your tribute we did our best. I focus on the fact that he chose Davis as his last tournament to say goodbye to him,” Feliciano explains to OKDIARIO.
The Toledo native calls the development of all tournament-related events “phenomenal.” “Fortunately, the Davis Cup is a very important competition. There was a feeling of sadness among the Spanish fans. When a player like Rafa decides to withdraw from this tournament, expectations rise. For many weeks, all that was talked about was Nadal’s retirement. All of this has an impact on the organization of the event, but everything went well,” he says.
Nadal retires in a Davis whose debut, in 2004, was experienced alongside Feliciano López. “I remember Rafa was very young, he was making his debut at Davis. Spain suffered at the time when playing away. The next generation started to lose their fear of competing as visitors, but at that time it was complicated. We had to play a very complicated match in the Czech Republic, where he was making his Davis Cup debut. “He lost the first day in singles and doubles, his first two matches were two defeats,” begins the native of Toledo.
“The captain decides that I would play the fourth point and Rafa the last. Before starting the game, I saw Rafa coming running. The first thing I did was worry, in case something would disrupt the team’s plans, but nothing. Told me “I just want to ask you one favor and that is for you to win your match and I will take care of the rest.“. It shows the determination of a 17-year-old boy who was making his Davis Cup debut, he had lost his first two matches, the track was not favorable… and he was convinced that we were going to win,” concluded Feliciano. López, current director of the Davis Cup final.
