Time counts down the minutes at full speed. He does it without looking at who is wearing the watch on their wrist. He is an implacable judge even for Rafa Nadal. The best Spanish tennis player in history announced on October 10 his intention to hang up his racket after the final phase of the Davis Cup that begins on November 19 in Malaga.
Since the Manacorí made his intentions public, the reactions and comments have been repeated. displays of admiration among his teammates and there is no interview in which the world of tennis is not asked about the figure of a Nadal who speeds up his training to give himself one last dance in the best possible conditions.
The last to evaluate the figure of the Balearic tennis player has been Ivan Ljubicic, a former Croatian tennis player who became number 3 in the world and who was Roger Federer’s coach in the Swiss’s last days as an active player. For Ljubicic there is an image that will never be the same again and it is that of Phillipe Chatrier without seeing Rafa Nadal on his clay.
“I was surprised when Nadal announced his retirement. Obviously I can understand why, that’s not the point. But For me, Rafa Nadal is Roland Garros, and seeing that he is not going to play in Paris is difficult to accept.”Ljubicic noted in an interview with Eurosport in which he once again described the feat of facing Nadal on clay.
“Playing against Rafa in the Philippe-Chatrier is difficult, it is a traumatic experience”recalled Ljubicic, who weighed the difficulty of playing against Rafa at Roland Garros and against Federer at the All England Club. “I never played against Federer at Wimbledon, but I faced him many times and it was complicated because he had all the solutions. Rafa has tennis that is tactically quite simple, but impossible to handle.”
What Ljubicic, winner of 10 ATP tournaments and who had a balance of 429 wins and 296 losses, is convinced ofis that Nadal will not be in Malaga, he will arrive at Davis to compete. “Champions like this play to win, not to participate,” concludes the Croatian about the state of a Nadal for whom now there are all congratulations and praise.