Rafael Nadal will receive a \u2018necessary\u2019 retirement tribute at Roland Garros during the tournament\u2019s 2025 edition, according to the French Tennis Federation\u2019s president Gilles Moretton.<\/p>\n
The 14-time champion will be honoured at a tournament which he dominated more than any other player in the sport \u2013 perhaps in any sport.<\/p>\n
Nadal<\/a> said his goodbye to professional tennis at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in Malaga, after he fell to Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-4 \u2013 with Spain losing the overall tie to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will, necessarily, be something for Rafael Nadal, a very big tribute,\u201d Gilles Moretton, the president of the French Tennis Federation, said to Europe 1 radio.<\/p>\n \u201cA real tribute, very important. We are attached to it. The [Davis Cup] tribute was not really the one that we had to pay him We were ready last year and he wasn\u2019t ready, he was still a player.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went to see him at home, at the beginning of December, with Am\u00e9lie Mauresmo to talk to him about this tribute that we will organize for him, and talked to him about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Moretton also hinted at a future direct relationship between Nadal and the Parisian Grand Slam: \u201cWe will give the outlines in some time of this role of ambassador that he can hold with us. The two \u2018brands\u2019, Rafael Nadal and Roland-Garros<\/a>, are one. So yes, we are considering things with him.\u201d<\/p>\n Latest ATP News<\/strong><\/p>\n Laura Robson weighs in on status of \u2018really cool\u2019 Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray partnership<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz told what will be \u2018almost impossible\u2019 to achieve in Rafael Nadal comparison<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Long-time rival Novak Djokovic harshly criticised the tribute that the Davis Cup Finals gave the Spaniard, upon his retirement in Malaga.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the video [of the ceremony]. I don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t know if Rafa maybe didn\u2019t want to make too much of a fuss about it in order not to bother other teams, matches. I don\u2019t know, to be honest, but I feel bad that I wasn\u2019t there,\u201d said the Serb, who had planned to be at the tournament if Spain progressed past the Netherlands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were together on the court in Riyadh, that was the moment, a nice moment. I saw him play at Roland Garros, we played each other at the Olympics. The ceremony, if you want my opinion, wasn\u2019t done properly.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe Rafa himself wasn\u2019t sure whether he\u2019ll play or not, if he can play some more, and then maybe it was too late to do something bigger. I don\u2019t know, really.\u201d<\/p>\n The 24-time Grand Slam champion wasn\u2019t the only one who was critical of the tribute.<\/p>\n Nadal\u2019s last coach, and Grand Slam champion, Carlos Moya stated: \u201cThe feeling we are all left with is a bit scruffy and shabby. It\u2019s true that it\u2019s a Tuesday night, but this is sport and we knew months in advance that if Spain lost, Rafa would retire. Nadal is far above all this.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Nadal \u2013 himself \u2013 was often understated, but, by the sounds of it, the tribute in Paris will be significantly more grandeur, at a tournament which he made his second home.<\/p>\n The post Rafael Nadal to receive a \u2018very big\u2019 retirement tribute at Roland Garros<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rafael Nadal will receive a \u2018necessary\u2019 retirement tribute at Roland Garros during the tournament\u2019s 2025 edition, according to the French Tennis Federation\u2019s president Gilles Moretton. The 14-time champion will be honoured at a tournament which he dominated more than any other player in the sport \u2013 perhaps in any sport. Nadal said his goodbye to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}