Rafael Nadal introduced himself to the world in the 2004 Davis Cup final. In front of more than 27,000 people at the Estadio de la Cartuja in Seville, the Mallorcan won the second point of the tie against Andy Roddick in an epic match that brought an entire country to its feet. <\/p>\n\n
Now, more than 20 years later and after becoming a legend of the sport, the 22-time Grand Slam champion has chosen this competition (Davis Cup) to definitively lower the curtain on his career as a professional athlete.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s closing the circle,\u201d said Carlos Moy\u00e0, one of Rafa\u2019s coaches. \u201cThe start of his stellar career, the turning point, was the 2004 Davis Cup, when he beat Roddick. It was from then on that we began to see his true potential, becoming the player we have since seen. It\u2019s very nice for him to say goodbye like this, in Spain and in this team competition. It will be something very special, and his mind is on making things difficult for the captain so that he can be chosen, knowing that there are great players on the team.\u201d Upon ending his career, Nadal set the last \u201cclear and realistic objective\u201d of his professional life: to represent Spain in the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga. With that objective, the Balearic player is training hard at the Rafa Nadal Academy, with the aim of adding a lot to the team captained by David Ferrer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 22-time Grand Slam champion has chosen the Davis Cup to definitively close the curtain on his career as a professional athlete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":20797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n