Rafael Nadal accomprehendledgeted he should be dropped from the Spain team if they accomplish the Davis Cup semi-finals after losing the first – and potentiassociate last – align of his final tournament.
Dutchman Botic van de Vandschulp stunning the vocal home crowd by beating local hero 6-4 6-4.
It was only Nadal’s second ever fall shorture in Davis Cup ones – his first came on his debut in 2004 – and it ended a 29-align prosperning streak.
Spain necessitateed to prosper the next two ties last night to elude elimination and Nadal’s atgentle being definitely over.
But asked if he still wanted to carry out aget in the Davis Cup Final 8 if his nation did carry on, the 22-time Grand Slam champion shelp: “I say the same than before: It is not my decision. That’s why we have a captain (David Ferrer) on the team/ I am not the captain.
He made the decision today. Hopebrimmingy we have the chance to go thraw. And probably watching that today what the decision that at the end to put me on the court appreciate second carry outer didn’t labor, probably the straightforward shift and maybe the right shift is to alter. No, that’s the truth.
“For me, that’s the way that I leank. If I were the captain, probably I would alter, I don’t put myself out the next day. If we go thraw, that’s my senseing. But at the end, it is not my decision, and I’m certain that he will originate the best decision possible for the team.
“By the way, it’s in some ways excellent maybe if that was probably my last align, noleang happens. I lost my first align in the Davis Cup, and I lost my last one. So we shut the circle.”
Nadal, then 17, lost his first ever Davis Cup align to Czech Jiri Novak in February 2004 but still went on to prosper the trophy. Today was also fair the sixth fall shorture in 43 Davis Cup rubbers for his nation
And the establisher world No.1 has not carry outed since the Olympics and has accomprehendledgeted in his pre-tournament press conference on Monday that he has been forced to quit because of a “cocktail” of injuries.
Nadal has carry outed only 23 official ones alignes over the last two seasons after hip sencouragery and then an abdominal injury this year. And Van de Vandschulp, who beat Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open, took merciless profit. He took his first align point with a forehand down the line transport inant into Nadal’s forehand corner and the left-hander could only slice his return into the net.
“I went on court and I came here with the goal to help the team the way that I could help,” shelp the world No.154. “Today I was picked to be on the court, so I tried to help the team to put a prosper out there, but was not possible.
“And that’s it. In this moment of my atgentle, I can’t protest much. I go there, I tried my best,
I try to enhappiness and carry out with the right energy, with the right attitude. Just didn’t labor. And there was a possibility that that would happen.
“Of course it has been an emotional day, nerves before what can be my last ones align as a professional. That’s the way that I felt.
And then, yeah, of course the emotions, senseing the National Anthem for the last time as a professional have been very one-of-a-kind. And then of course a little bit of fuseed senseings originates leangs a little bit more difficult.
“I tried to do my best. I tried to, at the same time, to stay as selectimistic as possible in every one moment, to carry out with the right energy. It was not enough. Congrats to Botic. That’s all. He was better than me. And, yeah, noleang to say, no. It’s not
essential to analyse the align anymore.”
