Wilander on Nadal: "It's never been right for him".
It was a moment in history that we witnessed on Tuesday. Beaten in the singles by Botic Van de Zandschulp (6-4, 6-4), Rafael Nadal then watched helplessly as his team was eliminated by the Spaniards in the decisive doubles.
And so it can now officially be said: Nadal and professional tennis are definitely over.
In this moment of history, testimonies inevitably follow one another with a single objective: to pay homage, to talk, to decipher the career of one of the greatest tennis players in history.
In particular, Mats Wilander offered a column in which he explained that one of the Majorcan's great strengths was his ability to evolve his game, particularly on the backhand side, to become much stronger. He said: "Of course, when he won his last French Open, he sometimes played points like he did on hard court.
But when he had to play very important points, often at the start of a match, he reverted to his basic patterns, as when he was 22.
Most players, when they make significant progress in one area, tend to regress in another. This was never the case for him.