Rafael Nadal's Davis Cup retirement and the tennis tournament that had the world paying attention

Of all the silly records Rafael Nadal has collected during his epic career, the silliest might be in the competition where it will all come to an end.

Since his debut in 2004, Nadal has played thirty singles matches for Spain in the Davis Cup. He lost once to Jiri Novak from the Czech Republic twenty years ago. The defeat kicked off a tournament that would serve as a years-long announcement to the world of a teenager in red mud who would become a 22-time Grand Slam singles champion and one of the greatest men's players.

Two decades later, Nadal is back in Spain, this time in Malaga, for one final round. How much will he play? How many more matches can his creaking body handle, especially on an indoor hard court? Does he play singles or doubles? Or both? Will he reunite in doubles with his heir, 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, to once again form the Nadalcaraz duo for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris?

Only Nadal and David Ferrer, the Spain captain, will be qualified to answer those questions. Everyone knows that this battered Nadal, who is on his way to the finish after dealing with a sore hip, a sore back, sore knees and other calamities for the past two years, is a shadow of his former self. But even if he doesn't hit a tennis ball, his mere presence at that wonderful match, as he once described the Davis Cup, may secretly be more fitting for the end than a farewell at Roland Garros in Paris, where his legacy has stood. statue since even before he won his last title.

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Nadal won the French Open fourteen times. His legacy on the clay at Roland Garros will last, seemingly forever, at 112-4. But the Davis Cup also brought out the best in Nadal. He played in 23 Davis Cup matches and compiled a 37-5 record, including his 8-4 record in doubles. Spain won the Davis Cup five times during his career, more than any other country during that period, including in 2004 on the clay of Seville, where Nadal first asserted his authority in tennis.

Rafael Nadal does his signature trophy bite with David Ferrer (left), Albert Costa (second from left) and Fernando Verdasco (right) after winning the 2009 Davis Cup (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

It all started with that loss against Novak in an indoor stadium in Brno, in the middle of the Czech winter.

I hit him because he was still a child, Novak said in an October interview from his hometown of Zin in the Czech Republic.

If that sounds like a player objecting to a half-formed legend, then Novak is proud to have this small claim to fame. Given Nadal's career, any win against him is something the grandchildren need to hear about. Still, the Czech, now 49, believes it is a triumph that requires a bit of perspective.

The story begins in Auckland, almost a month before the first round tie between the Czech Republic and Spain. Auckland, now an ATP 250 and then known as a World Series, was Novak's favorite tournament. He had won the award in 1996 and always came to New Zealand with confidence. In 2004, he won three consecutive matches and set up a semi-final against a teenager from Spain he had never heard of.

Novak wandered around the locker room looking for any information they had on a guy named Nadal. He soon discovered that he was a newcomer and a promising candidate, as he had already reached the top 50.

Novak was 28 and ranked in the top 15 in the world. It seemed like a manageable match. It wasn't. Nadal defeated Novak 6-1, 6-3.

They then both reached the third round in Australia. Nadal lost to Lleyton Hewitt; Novak to Andrei Pavel from Romania in a surprising reversal. Then came the Davis Cup, the first weekend of February. Some of Spain's better and more experienced players were injured, so Nadal got the nod, his first for the Davis Cup team.

Once again Novak liked his chances. Like most Spanish players, Nadal had a game built on and for red clay. He could hit hard, but he was still largely a defensive player, who had not yet developed his mature strength and entered the pressure cooker of the Davis Cup, representing his country far from home.

Novak thrived in the heat and pressure. The team format usually brought out the best in him, especially at home in front of the often rowdy Czech fans. Brno offered him a fast carpet track to drive the ball through the feverish atmosphere.

It was all connected. Novak defeated the Spanish phenomenon in three tight sets, 7-6(2), 6-3, 7-6(3). Novak discovered that Nadal was a warrior, but his backhand was then pre-eminently attacked. He saw his opponent as a fellow solid player early in his tennis journey. Never in his wildest dreams did he think Nadal was on his way to all-time greatness.

Not like now, he said.

Jiri Novak shot and fired his way to victory over Rafael Nadal in Brno (Joe Klamar / AFP via Getty Images)

The next day he saw Nadal again in doubles. Novak teamed with Radek Stepanek to defeat Nadal and Tommy Robredo, also in straight sets.

Two days, two losses. Not exactly a storybook start to a career with the national team. It was the kind of weekend that could send a teenager into a tailspin.

Instead, the opposite happened. Early Sunday afternoon, just before his match, Feliciano Lopez heard Nadal shouting his name as he ran after him in the stadium hallway. Jordi Arrese, Spain's captain, had picked Lopez to play Tomas Berdych in the fourth match, with Spain trailing 2–1. Nadal would play the fifth and decisive match against Stepanek, if it came to that.

He says, Feli, please win this match and I'll take care of the rest of this tie, Lopez recalled in an interview in October.

He is making his debut in the Davis Cup after losing two matches and he was convinced that if I beat Berdych he would win the decisive match.

Inspired by Nadal's confidence, Lopez defeated Berdych in four sets. Then Nadal came on and defeated Stepanek in three. The Czechs didn't know exactly what had happened; what had happened was exactly what Nadal had planned.

Ten months later, Patrick McEnroe brought the American Davis Cup team to Seville for the final against Spain. McEnroe recalled in an October interview that he and the rest of the team were quite confident even though they were playing on the road and on clay, a surface on which Americans often slip.

Team USA consisted of brothers Bryan, Bob and Mike, who were on their way to becoming perhaps the greatest doubles duo in tennis history. They also had Andy Roddick, number 2 in the world at the time. Mardy Fish, Olympic silver medalist that summer, in the second singles.

The Bryan brothers seemed to be doing everything they could to win the doubles, so if Roddick could win his singles matches, the US would be victorious. They practiced on the slow clay of the Estadio Olimpico in Seville the week before the event. It wasn't ideal for Roddick, a classic hard-court kid from Texas, but he remained confident.

The day before the match started, McEnroe received what he thought was very good news. Spain had selected Nadal to play the second match on the opening night against Roddick, following Carlos Moya's defeat to Fish in three sets.

Roddick had just defeated Nadal at the US Open 6-0, 6-3, 6-4. Nadal was clearly a talented young player, but putting him against the world number 2 in a Davis Cup final seemed like a big ask. Spain had serious options in Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero, both French Open champions. They weren't necessarily in their prime, but they were pretty close.

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What was Spain thinking?

It didn't take long for me to figure that out, even though Nadal's arms emerging from his sleeveless maroon shirt are about half the size in the old grainy video as they would eventually be. His cheeks still have a hint of baby fat. He looks like a boy.

He sank his teeth into the match from the start, pushing Roddick to a tiebreak in the first set and then convincingly winning the second 6-2 to level.

More than 27,000 frenzied fans were packed into the stadium. They had heard all about Nadal and what he could become. Even less who he already was.

They were playing outside and it got cold. The third set continued and led to another tiebreak. Then something strange happened.

McEnroe said Roddick enjoyed being coached but always wanted to be left alone during his serve. His serve was his money shot and one of the best in the game. He didn't need any guidance. Serving at 5-4 in the tiebreak after Nadal missed one of those lassoed forehands down the line that would remain highlights for years, Roddick looked at McEnroe and asked him which way to go. Roddick, who declined to be interviewed for this story, asked for help on a shoot for which he never needed help.

McEnroe told him to go through the T to Nadal's backhand. He did so, but missed the tape by an inch. Then Roddick threw his second serve into the net. He served and hit a second-serve volley on the next point to make it 6-5, but he couldn't catch up on a Nadal drop shot to put the set away. Nadal then hit winners on the next two points and never looked back, winning the final set 6-2. When it was over, he danced for the crowd in celebration.

Rafael Nadal's defeat to Andy Roddick in Seville was a turning point in his career (Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images)

He only got better as the match went on, McEnroe, who didn't share Novak's measured prediction of Nadal's talents, said of that harbinger of a night.

We all knew we were looking at someone who would be an all-rounder. We were like, Wow, this kid is the real deal.

The Bryan brothers did their job and only conceded five matches against Ferrero and Robredo in doubles. But while Nadal waited to play the deciding match, Moya lifted the trophy with a straight sets win over Roddick on Sunday.

After the loss, Roddick said the atmosphere in the massive stadium was unlike anything he had ever experienced. More than 27,000 people saw him lose to Nadal.

You're busy concentrating on the task at hand, then you look up and see that there are people who as far as you can tell are just going crazy.

Three years later, the Americans would get their revenge by beating Spain in a quarterfinal tie in North Carolina. This time McEnroe knew exactly what he was dealing with.

He ordered the construction of a fast hard court to be installed in an indoor arena in Winston-Salem.

Two weeks before the tie, he tested it out himself. His ball jumped off the field instead of sliding. The court was too slow. He ordered the manufacturer to repaint it with less sand in the paint, which creates the friction that slows the ball. He wanted a Rafa-proof court that Roddick and his service could thrive on.

Lo and behold, Rafa pulled away and we ended up beating Spain easily, McEnroe said.

The US won the Davis Cup that year. The reign would be short-lived. Spain won the next two and Nadal would never lose another singles match in the tournament.

(Top Photos: Getty Images; Design: Meech Robinson)