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At the Laver Cup on Friday, Rafa Nadal watched in tears as his great opponent, Roger Federer, said an emotional farewell to tennis. Later, he said that Roger Federer’s retirement also meant that he was departing the men’s Tour.
Pictures and videos of Federer and Nadal crying together after losing in a doubles match for Team Europe at London’s O2 Arena went viral on social media, leaving their throngs of fans inconsolable. Federer and Nadal had one of tennis’ most captivating rivalries.
The emotional Spaniard expressed what we are all feeling as we wish Federer, the founding member of the Big 3, farewell. Even though we don’t want to acknowledge it, an era has officially begun to come to an end, and there is no turning back now.
With it, a portion of our collective experience playing tennis is lost and consigned to history.
“For me, have been huge honor to be a part of this amazing moment of the history of our sport, and at the same time a lot of years sharing a lot of things together,” Nadal said. “When Roger leaves the tour, an important part of my life is leaving too because all the moments that he have been next or in front me in important moments of my life.
“So have been emotional see the family, see all the people. Yeah, difficult to describe. But, yeah, amazing moment.”
Federer and Nadal, collectively known as “Fedal,” walked onto the court to raucous applause. Both were emotional after entertaining the sold-out audience during the game.
“I think every year the personal relationship gets better and better, on a daily basis,” Nadal, 36, told reporters. “I think in some way we understand at the end we have a lot of things similar. We approach the life probably similar.
“On court we have completely opposite styles, and that’s what probably makes our matches and our rivalry probably one of the biggest and most interesting.
“Very proud to be part of his career in some way. But even happier to finish our career like friends after everything we shared on court like rivals.”
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