Tennis player Rafa Nadal greets the public after his match against the Czech Jiri Lehecka, corresponding to the round of 16 of the Muta Madrid Open, today Tuesday at the Caja Mágica facilities, in Madrid.
Photo: EFE – Chema Moya
A backhand that went outside, to the doubles hall, was the last blow on the Manolo Santana court of Rafael Nadal’s Caja Mágica, surpassed by the Czech Jiri Lehecka, a firm representative of the upcoming tennis, in the last match in the Masters 1000 of Madrid of the winner of twenty-two Grand Slams who is about to say goodbye to his unparalleled career.
A 7-5 and 6-4 in two hours and one minute was the summary of the Balearic Islands’ last match, in the round of 16 of the tournament, which they made five times. He shook Lehecka’s hand at the end, which departed from the climax and the planned tribute, the gratitude of the public and the organization, to the best Spanish athlete ever.
“Glad. It has been a very special few days for me. I have had the opportunity to play here again, on a court that has given me so much on an emotional and professional level. A few weeks ago I didn’t know if I would be able to compete in an official match again. I have been able to play for two weeks. It has been unforgettable. It has been an incredible journey. I came for the first time in 2003. The first time I came competitively in 2005 was one of the most exciting victories of my career,” he said on the track.
Sooner or later it had to arrive. And it happened a little later than Nadal expected before the start of the tournament and sooner than desired for the organization, but, above all, for the public.
The five-time champion said goodbye. And it was without haggling efforts until the end. Just as his entire career has gone. He kept his cool, his face held high, as long as his strength lasted. He questioned his opponent, a player from the new Central European batch already established on the circuit, full of virtues, while he had energy. Then, with fuel in reserve and his body on alert, he collapsed.
Two generations face to face. Part of the last blows of one of the members of the legendary big three, before the fresh air represented by the Czech, runner-up in the Next Gen Finals last year, a player on the rise, heir to the talent that walked through the Tomas circuit Berdych who this year has already captured his first title on the circuit, in Adelaide.
Like so many others, the face to face against Rafael Nadal, and more so on land, has extra motivation for anyone. It doesn’t matter that the winner of twenty-two Grand Slams has started the countdown in his professional career and is thinking more about retirement than about future goals. It is always an added merit to have an eventual victory against a giant like the Balearic Islands on a service record.
It was an assumed defeat, warned by Nadal the day before. “I don’t expect to beat Lehecka,” with whom he even trained on one occasion before the start of the tournament. He is the Czech, a player without fear of heights or his rival. For the second time in a Masters 1000 quarterfinal, where the Russian Daniil Medvedev awaits him, he became the first player from the Czech Republic after Tomas Berdych to reach this stage in an event of a similar level on land.
Nadal missed his 60th victory in Madrid, surpassed by a rival fifteen years younger. At times, in the first set, he reminded the Spaniard of that player capable of anything. Reliable in the rest, he had his big chance in the eighth game, when he had a breaking ball, the only one, to go up to 5-3. But Lehecka made no concessions. The serve is one of his main weapons, with shots beyond 220 kilometers per hour. Tight, open. He overcame the setback without shaking his pulse and then, at the moment of truth, when he was aiming for the tiebreaker, he took the Balearic’s serve and closed the set 7-5.
That’s it for the pulse. He is not there nor does he want to be for much longer now, Nadal prefers to finish the event healthy and follow his roadmap for bigger companies that he does not want to waste. He still sought a withdrawal from the party with dignity, with battle.
He began to say goodbye at the beginning of the second, when he gave up his serve and the Czech consolidated a striking imbalance that led him to victory. Nadal could not respond to the push of a dedicated, confident, hopeful public that so many other times led him to take flight, to win.
The five-time champion, no one has won as many times as him in Madrid, is not up for epics against opponents of similar stature. He gave him the chance to face the Argentine Pedro Cachín in the second round, with more than three hours of fighting. But Lehecka, now 31 in the ATP ranking, but with a higher long-term outlook, has no cracks. Not as many as the South American one.
The first player outside the top 20 to beat Nadal on clay since the Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in Rio de Janeiro 2016, he was among the top eight of a Masters 1000 for the second time after Indian Wells last March to extend his record and his achievements on the circuit aided by a game full of virtues.
Twenty participations in the twenty-two editions and five titles are left behind in the path of Nadal, who is leaving the Caja Mágica, where he went for the last time to extend his progression in the course. Four matches played, two matches in a row, more than eight hours on the court, in the cluster of the Madrid transit station, a stop on the route to Roland Garros, towards the Paris Games. Towards the final stretch, with still good pages to write about an unparalleled race.
