In her latest Sky Sports column, Laura Robson reflects on the career of ‘The King of Clay’ Rafael Nadal, who has announced his retirement from tennis at the age of 38 having won 22 Grand Slams, including a record 14 French Open titles…
I cried at the video that Rafa posted. I was going out for lunch, and I thought ‘I’m not going to watch it beforehand because I know I’m going to cry’, so I waited until I was back in my car and had 10 minutes to sit and digest it. Even when you know what’s coming it’s still so sad to see these icons retire.
Rafa has been at the heart of such an incredible era of tennis that it’s going to feel quiet without his roar on the court. But it’s felt inevitable over the past year so to finish off in Spain, for Davis Cup, will be something special. I’m sure tickets sales just went through the roof!
His retirement video got me right in the feels! The tributes to his family, his team, all the clips of him playing as a youngster. He has stayed incredibly humble throughout his extraordinary career so it wasn’t surprising that most of the video was him thanking everyone who’s been on the journey with him.
It led me down a path of tribute videos from various tournaments, fans and sponsors. There’s not many who aren’t sad to see him go.
I’ve probably taken the most from watching him at tournaments because it’s very easy in an individual sport to be quite insular, especially when you’re such a big name and people want your time but you’d never know from the way he interacts with everyone around him.
So, before a match he would be up in the players restaurant playing board games with his team and then afterwards, win or lose, when he’s leaving the tournament for the last time, he will take almost an hour to leave the site because he’ll stop at the transport desk and say thank you to them. He’ll talk to the locker room attendant and say thank you to them. He literally goes door to door making sure he says thank you to everyone who’s been involved in the tournament.
When I was younger and I saw him doing that, it taught me so much and you’re thinking ‘if Rafa can do it, then I’ve got no excuse’.
Just the fact that he’s stayed so nice, so humble, after this many years, it’s going to be sad when he’s not around.
He’s been such a great role model for younger players, not just off the court but on the court. You can’t think of a single point where he’s given in and hasn’t committed fully. When I first played juniors as a 14 year old, I went to watch him practice and was blown away. The intensity, the focus, everything about it you could learn from.
He’s stayed consistent and true to himself throughout the years, being 100 per cent all the time in everything he does. It’s led him to this phenomenal career and icon status as one of the GOATs.
There’s only one man left now from a defining era in tennis, but I’m sure Novak [Djokovic] has got a few more years left in him. We can’t have them all go back-to-back – it will be too much for me to take!
It probably feels quite weird for Novak, though, to be the only one still left and to still be at the top of his game. It kind of shows what a class act he is.
Tennis is in good hands
Highlights of an epic China Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner
The [Jannik] Sinner and [Carlos] Alcaraz match-up is so good, isn’t it? The fact that Carlos has that little bit more variety, so when you see Sinner against the big-hitters like the US Open final [against Taylor Fritz] they just can’t match him from the baseline, but that’s where Alcaraz has that extra bit of flexibility in his game style, he can come forward, he can do drop shots, and it just brings Sinner out of his comfort zone more often.
They bring out the best in each other’s games, that’s for sure. A few years ago during US Open they played that epic five-setter that finished around 2.30am.
At the time I thought ‘if this is the headline match up for the next 10 years then we are very lucky indeed’. I’ve yet to be disappointed!
What’s coming up on Sky Sports Tennis in October?
- Shanghai Masters – ATP 1000 (October 2-13)
- Wuhan Open – WTA 1000 (October 6-12)
- Almaty Open, Kazakhstan – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- Stockholm Open, Sweden – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- European Open, Antwerp – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- Japan Open, Osaka – WTA 250 (October 14-20)
- Ningbo Open, China – WTA 500 (October 14-20)
- Erste Bank Open, Vienna – ATP 500 (October 21-27)
- Swiss Indoors, Basel – ATP 500 (October 21-27)
- Guangzhou Open, China – WTA 250 (October 21-27)
- Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis, Tokyo – WTA 500 (October 21-27)
Sky Sports+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.
