Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal has faced defeat in a possible farewell match. Nadal suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Botic van de Zandschlop in the Davis Cup Finals 2024 in Malaga on Tuesday (November 19). 80th ranked Botic won the quarterfinal singles match 4-6, 4-6 in straight sets. Nadal has suffered his first defeat in Davis Cup after two decades. He had earlier lost a Davis Cup match in 2004. With this win, the Netherlands have taken a lead over Spain while two doubles games are left. If the Netherlands defeat Spain in the quarterfinals, Nadal’s journey will come to an end. 38-year-old Nadal had already announced that he would retire from the game after this Davis Cup season.
Nadal has achieved the feat of winning 29 consecutive Davis Cup singles matches but he looked a little weak against Botic. There was a close contest between the two at one point in the first set. However, Botic gradually started dominating. He did not give Nadal a chance to make a comeback after four games. On the other hand, Nadal made a good comeback after trailing 1-3 in the second set. He won the fourth game. From here, Botic started controlling him and after that he kept winning the game continuously and gave Netherlands a 1-0 lead.
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Let us tell you that 22-time Grand Slam champion Nadal was selected to play a singles match against Netherlands in the Davis Cup last eight match on Tuesday. Before that there was confusion about Nadal. Both the countries announced their team about an hour before the quarter-final match started. Before Nadal’s final competition, Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players, made a special post. He said that during the rivalry that lasted for 40 matches in 15 years, Nadal helped him ‘enjoy the game more’.
