David Haggerty would not assume that the criticism surrounding Rafael Nadal’s farewell is justified in any respect because the ITF President claims the group staged it as instructed by the Spanish tennis icon.
Final Tuesday, the 38-year-old performed his final match as a professional tennis participant after he misplaced to Neherland’s Botic van de Zandschulp and Spain exited the Davis Cup Finals within the quarterfinal stage.
After Carlos Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers have been overwhelmed by van de Zandschulp and Wesley Koolhof within the deciding doubles match, Nadal took the microphone and a particular ceremony was held. In the course of the ceremony, the previous 22-time Grand Slam champion addressed the gang because the highlights of his profession have been being performed, together with particular messages from Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Serena Williams.
Nevertheless, not many have been happy with the best way went out, with some just about describing it as a reasonably poor farewell for one of many biggest gamers ever. Nadal’s coach Carlos Moya described it as “tacky,” Spanish Davis Cup captain David Ferrer stated it was “weak,” whereas Uncle Toni bluntly made it clear that he “did not like it.”
Rafael Nadal© Tenis Espana/Instagram – Honest Use
ITF President Haggerty responds to the Nadal farewell backlash
“Rafa is an amazing player and has a legacy of tennis that he will leave behind, inspiring millions of players around the world to play tennis, to continue to play. We felt it was very important to listen to what Rafa wanted and how he wanted to be celebrated. That’s exactly what we did,” Haggerty stated.
“We took his lead, and we delivered on that. People can have whatever opinions they want of whether it was right or not, but to me, the most important thing was we delivered a ceremony that was what Rafa wanted—and, being who he is, was a great evening, and it was much appreciated.”
In the meantime, Nadal stored it humble in his retirement speech and stated that he was “a kid from a small village” who succeeded in his objective.
