The last dance of Rafael Nadal's tennis career: could it be on the courts of Malaga, for the Davis Cup Finals? The teams that will take part in the Final 8 scheduled in the Spanish city from 19 to 24 November have been made official and, among the names chosen by captain David Ferrer, there is also the legendary winner of 22 Slam titles.
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Spain, the host of the event, will try to exploit the warmth of their fans to conquer the seventh title in their history and to do so they could count on Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard has been included in the list of players called up to face the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
The 14-time Roland Garros winner, who has a record of 37 wins and 5 losses in this event and has triumphed five times, was chosen by his former teammate Ferrer, despite not having taken the court since July 21 and his appearances this year have been rather limited.
Rafa will join Carlos Alcaraz, forming a potentially incredible team, considering that Roberto Bautista Agut, Pablo Carreo and Marcel Granollers will be with them. Pedro Martinez and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are therefore excluded.
In the quarterfinals, Spain will face the Dutch team, which qualified as runners-up in the Bologna group with Italy. Paul Haarhuis, captain of the orange team, has chosen Tallon Griekspoor, Botic van de Zandschulp, Jesper de Jong and Wesley Koolhof, who will fight to defeat Ferrer's team in search of their first Davis Cup title. It will certainly be a tough task to prevail against the hosts, among the favorite teams for the final victory, but the Dutch performed well against the Italians and showed that they can give anyone a hard time.
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Obviously Rafa has not yet taken his presence in Malaga for granted, but obviously many are wondering if the Davis Cup Finals could be the final event of the Spaniard's extraordinary career. It is difficult to say, just as it is still difficult to understand if Rafa will actually play in Malaga or not. The Spaniard has not definitively closed the door to a comeback in 2025, especially for the tournaments in Rome and, obviously, for the Roland Garros, but making such a hypothesis is too premature.
