Nadal is bursting into tears during the French Open Farewell speech while legends join him
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Rafael Nadal left tears when he returned to Roland Garros as a retired tennis star, he misplace one of the sheets of his speech to court.
The biggest French open champion in history was tears in his eyes, because thanks to 15,000 fans he said in his second home of Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Seven months after he left the sport, the Spanish superstar received a special presentation by organizers, with supporters who attract clay-Court-colored T-shirts.
His brightest rivals – Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray – all made a special trip to the French capital.
And a plaque -bearing Nadal’s Footprint was unveiled on the field as a lasting memory of his great achievements.
Nevertheless, the 14-time singles non-characteristic conquered his lines while admitted that he had forgotten one of the A4 piece of paper that had his speech.
Fortunately, he was saved by a beam end that ran to the court to hand it over to him.
It was a rare slip-up in an arena where he touched his lines with perfection and where he had his most famous triumphs.
Nadal received a standing ovation – and a random intermezzo from interpretative dance – for his return home when he came dressed in a black suit.
Between 2005 and 2024, Nadal won a historic 14 singles championships at this courtWinning 112 of his 116 competitions.
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It is one of the most supreme records in world sport – nobody, especially in tennis, can remotely remotely at that level of dominance in one place.
Are Last French open appearance was a loss of straight sets for Alexander Zverev 12 months ago and after he Bombed from the Olympic Games in Paris On the same surface it was logical that he got a suitable farewell.
The hair has been considerably withdrawn since his introduction here, 18 years old, in 2005, when he had long, flowing locks and had a resemblance to a cast member of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
Nadal, who will be 39 next month, was supported by his family, including his wife and two -year -old son.
The 22-way Grand Slam champion said: “Thank you very much. This is difficult. This is difficult. I have lived a lot of emotions on this court.
“This is without a doubt the most important tennis court in my career.
“It has been an incredible story that started in 2004 when I came Roland Garros For the very first time.
“I could hardly walk because of my foot injury, but that year I climbed to the top of the court on crutches and looked from above. I dreamed of coming back the following year to compete.
“In 2005 I was finally able to play here for the first time. I was 18 and my great experience was the game I played against my childhood friend and rival Richard Gasquet.
“From that day on I fully understand what Roland Garros meant. I have experienced everything for the past 20 years.”
A tribute video was played on the large screens and contained messages from the other members of the Tennis Fab Four.
‘Great friends … Dear rivalry’
The quartet of Nadal, Federer” Djokovic And Murray have 69 large championships between them.
Nadal said: “After fighting all those years, it is incredible how time has changed the perspective of everything.
“You don’t know yet, Novak. Andy probably knows, but Roger and I talked about this a few times.
“All these nerves, busy, strange feelings when you see each other as rivals. It is completely different when you finish your career.
“We all reached our dreams. We became tennis players, played in important phases of our career and built up a great rivalry.
“We have shown the world that we can fight as hard as possible, but in a good way. Be good colleagues and respect each other.
“It means a lot that you are all here. You have given me some difficult times on the field.
“I really enjoyed it a lot and pushed myself to the utmost every day to compete with you.
“At the end, tennis is just a game.
“You are all here, and it’s a great message to the world. That we can be good friends, even if we had the best rivalry.
“Thank you very much for everything. I really hope and I am sure that we will continue to do positive things for our sport in the future.
“Without a doubt our estate is there, we can build things and make beautiful things together.”
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