Rafael Nadal made an emotional exit from tennis on Tuesday night, as his legendary career came to an end at the Davis Cup.
The 38-year-old opted to make the event in Malaga his last, having accepted last month that he can no longer compete at the highest level.
Nadal was hoping for one final victory on home soil but Botic van de Zandschulp spoiled the party with a 6-4 6-4 victory, and Spain’s quarter-final elimination was confirmed after defeat in the doubles.
Bowing out, the 22-time Grand Slam singles winner said he has now ‘closed the circle’ on his time in tennis.
“It’s in some ways good, maybe, if that was my last match,” he said.
“I lost my first match in the Davis Cup, and I lost my last one. So we close the circle.”
After emotional scenes on Tuesday night, Nadal steps away a legend, ending his career more than 22 years after it all began on the ATP Tour in April 2002 – when he was just 15-years-old.
Ranked No. 762 in the world back then, he received a wild card to the ATP 250 event on his home island of Mallorca, and stepped on court for his debut.
His opponent that day was Paraguay’s Ramon Delgado, who was ranked World No. 81 at the time and had gone as high as No. 52 a few years earlier.
But in what was a sign of things to come, Nadal simply blew him away on clay.
The Spaniard broke serve five times to defeat his 25-year-old opponent 6-4, 6-4, in under one and a half hours, announcing himself on the ATP stage.
“I really wanted to go out there and play well,” Nadal said afterwards.
“I knew it was going to be difficult, but I held my game. I thought I played well, keeping the ball deep and maintaining the power.”
At 15 years and 10 months, Nadal became the ninth player in the Open Era to win an ATP match before turning 16.
Delgado went on to open up on playing the teenager who became a legend, admitting Nadal was a ‘phenomenal’ competitor even way back then.
“I didn’t think I could lose because I didn’t imagine he could be so good,” Delgado said.
“We are talking about a 15-year-old boy who was already a phenomenon. He defended, he had intensity, he recovered very difficult balls. It was out of the ordinary.
“I thought, ‘This guy is different.’ Until the end I thought I was going to end up beating him by experience.
“But it was complicated for me, I came without confidence. And he took advantage.”
While the defeat would have turned heads at the time, it was only a sign of what was to come for Nadal.
He jumped almost 200 places in the world rankings and went on to claim six Future Tour titles in a row that year.
The rest, of course, is history.
Delgado, meanwhile, never quite reached the dizzying heights that his opponent did.
The Paraguayan never won a title playing either singles or doubles, and failed to make it beyond the fourth round in any of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
He did have a few moments in the sun and perhaps his finest win came at the French Open in 1998.
In the second round, he pulled off a shock of his own by beating number one seed Pete Sampras in straight sets.
Delgado retired in 2011 having achieved a career-high ranking of 52 and started coaching shortly after he finished playing.
