BARCELONA: The Davis Cup will provide a special farewell to retiring tennis great Rafael Nadal at the November final eight, tournament director Feliciano Lopez said on Tuesday.

The 22-time Grand Slam winner is part of David Ferrer’s Spain squ­ad for the finals in Malaga which begin on Nov 19.

Lopez said the Davis Cup was “lucky” to host Nadal’s final tournament and wants to offer the departing superstar a farewell that lives up to his glittering career.

“It’s confidential of course, but we’re planning to do something very special for him, we have to celebrate his career and his legacy,” Lopez told reporters.

“There’s a lot of things that we’re planning but for now I cannot share any more details with you, but we’re planning something very special.

“We are going to try and live up to his legacy and his enormous career and I hope we’re going to do something very special for him.”

Lopez said many stars of tennis and other sports wanted to come to Malaga to witness the denouement of Nadal’s career.

“I know that almost everyone in the world wants to be present for his farewell… Novak Djokovic posted on Instagram that he wants to be there, also Andy Murray wants to be there,” continued Lopez.

“I don’t know if we’re going to have seats for everyone, but as you can ima­gine all the tennis players that played in his time, they want to be there.

“Other athletes from different sports, of course from Spain and everywhere in the world, they want to be there as well, so it’s going to be very special for Rafa.”

Lopez did not think the “World Cup of Tennis” will be overshadowed by Nadal’s retirement.

The tournament director said Nadal himself was keen to make sure that was not the case in Malaga.

“The Davis Cup itself is so important and I don’t think this celebration is going to overshadow the competition, especially as Rafa doesn’t want any of that,” he explained.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2024