Rafa Nadal’s “farewell tour”, who wants to say goodbye to tennis like Kobe Bryant did with basketball

“I don’t think I deserve my career to end like this“he said yesterday Rafael Nadal in a press conference from his academy in Manacor. He had called the journalists together for something that fluctuated, in the barometer of forecasts, between the cold withdrawal from the next Roland Garros and the hot farewell outright to professional tennis. A middle ground prevailed. Cream academy branded polo shirt, tan enviable for the gray tenor of this European spring, Rafa said he doesn’t know when he’ll be back, definitely not in Paris, maybe in a month, four, or maybe more realistically directly next year . “I want to play the tournaments I like. My ambition is to stop for fun again in 2024, when it will probably be my last year as a pro“. He didn’t say “definitely”, but it is clear that that “probably” in the Majorcan’s head is equivalent to: let’s get ready to go on tour, come and see me for the last time, because I won’t be back.

In September last year Roger Federer decided to announce his retirement through a video release. It was improvised, too much time had passed since he had last seen him on the pitch. Knees still creaked, memories of victory were beginning to fade. And then the choice to appear for the last time at the Laver Cup in London, in doubles with Rafa, also surrounded by the presence of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray (tennis fans should print and hang the Fab Four selfie on the Thames), it was also a bit of a stretch. Like: let’s compulse the calendar, let’s figure out together what is the most dignified way to bring the curtain down on a timeless career.

Well Rafa, maybe even mindful of the tears shed that day while Ellie Goulding was singing cloying pop in the setting of the O2 Arena, he realized he wanted something different. She wanted to plan it, not suffer it. But going further, “because I don’t want an extra 2024, I want to fight for important goals”. Hence the insistence on the impracticability of returning to play immediately, as perhaps the predatory instinct of ten years ago would have advised him to do. “To reach this goal, I made this decision. We need an extra effort, this is my philosophy”. In short, the model is that of the tour of the seven churches, or the “farewell tour of Kobe Bryant” in the contemporary world of sport. In 2016, the Lakers champion announced his retirement at the start of the NBA regular season. He knew that in every stage he would come back for the last time. And so, also thanks to a skilful marketing operation, he managed to say goodbye to a sport in the most celebratory way he could imagine. To the point that the great rival Shaquille O’Neal he didn’t hold back: “I’m super jealous. I wanted a Shaq Tour. I’ve never said that but it’s killing me.”

But the examples, albeit with some variables, are different. This year Peter Sagan and Thibaut Pinot announced their farewell to cycling (but not to the bicycle) almost simultaneously, taking the whole season as a long catwalk-legacy. In football, the example of Roberto BaggioWhile the Pigtail God didn’t make the decision earlier this year, he didn’t have anything planned. Simply, during the Christmas break, realizing that the physicist couldn’t take it anymore, he told the Brescia broadcaster teleall: next will be my last matches. From there an impromptu tour started which led to the famous match on May 16, 2004, at the San Siro, standing ovation ahead of Milan of Maldini, Cafù, Seedorf, Kakà, Shevchenko and Inzaghi. Not so different from what happened to Alessandro Del Piero, who became known during the 2011-2012 season which would be his last at Juventus, also due to a decision by the Juventus club. On the other hand, this was not the case for Francesco Totti, who would have liked to continue to place his ambitions as an undecoated footballer (according to him) in front of the brutality of the registry office.

Perhaps Nadal simply, as he said yesterday, needs time to process things. And having the comfort of his audience, of racket enthusiasts, could help him. “Everything has a beginning and everything has an end. It happens to everyone, actors, sportsmen, singers. It’s a very happy career, which I’ve always dreamed of having”. In short, he wants there to be space to honor him as a player. Also because after that he “will start a different life after the last year on the pitch, he will take advantage of what comes”.