Rafael Nadal left the tennis world intrigued with a comment from his press conference a day before the Davis Cup 2024 began. He revealed to have “no ego” to say “goodbye in every single tournament”. Instantly, numerous fans tried dissecting and giving their two cents on this quote. One popular media house used this comment to make a revelation about Nadal’s participation in the team event.
The Davis Cup Finals 2024 has unofficially been deemed as the Rafael Nadal show, for this will be the latter’s final tournament before retirement. But this popular British media house – The Tennis Podcast – believes there could be a possibility that Nadal doesn’t suit up for any matches during his final dance.
“I don’t know if he has the ego to make himself available, to put himself forward to play when he knows in his heart of hearts he’s not the best choice… It’s a little bit uncomfortable. We’re at the Rafael Nadal show here and it might not actually feature Rafael Nadal,” the host said.
The co-host tried figuring out if there was any way Nadal could be on the court – if not in singles, then at least in doubles.
“I think he doesn’t have the ego and I think he respects the competition so much. Maybe there’s a scenario where he’s picked for doubles and even if he’s not the best choice, he’s a good enough choice to be competitive… I don’t think he can be competitive in singles. But maybe, maybe there’s a scenario where he can be competitive in doubles,” the co-host of the podcast said.
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Fans are eagerly waiting to know whether the 22-time Grand Slam champion will set foot on the court during the opening clash against the Netherlands. While team captain David Ferrer claims that the lineup isn’t decided yet, the entire tennis community can assume that Nadal would be giving his all, fulfilling his role as a player or a supporting teammate on the sidelines.
Will Nadal play in Spain’s quarterfinal tie against the Netherlands?
Normally, the captain is prepared with the team lineup for the matches well in advance. But Ferrer doesn’t have his plan of action in place… or at least that’s what he told the reporters in the recent press conference.
“I don’t know yet. At the moment, I have not decided the players that are going to play tomorrow,” Ferrer said.
There is no scenario where World No.3 Carlos Alcaraz gets left out of playing the singles matchup. Additionally, doubles World No.4 Marcel Granollers will also be a lock.
Fans would love to see Nadal take up the second singles matchup. However, Roberto Bautista Agut is in far superior form. The 36-year-old is coming off a European Open 2024 win and has defeated some big names from the top 20 rankings – Casper Ruud and Ugo Humbert – in the past few months.
During the 2024 Olympics, Alcaraz proved to be a solid doubles player. It’s likely that the youngster could be paired alongside Granollers.
As of now, picking Rafa to play over Agut in the singles matchup seems to be an option that the Spanish contingent could be pondering over.
