After the big cry, it’s the big cry-off

Federer’s farewell signals the end of an era for tennis

AFTER the big cry came the big cry-off, with Rafael Nadal joining Roger Federer yesterday in withdrawing from singles play at the Laver Cup.

This followed the extraordinary late-night scenes at the 02 Arena, which saw the two legends in tears following their final appearance together for Team Europe versus Team World.

It was approaching 2am when the two of them came in to reflect on being a part of Federer’s valedictory match, which had sparked a remarkable outpouring of emotion. By then, Nadal was on the brink of confirming that he would be flying straight home to be with his wife Xisca, who is in the final stages of a difficult pregnancy.

It appeared that the taxing personal events going on in Nadal’s life contributed to a rare public display of his feelings.

His withdrawal — a big disappointment to fans — was not a huge surprise, as it is understood that his replacement, Cam Norrie, was told some time ago to be fully prepared to step in.

It was also noteworthy Nadal admitted that the retirement of Federer has had him thinking about his own future. Andy Murray, one year younger at 35, talked along similar lines last week, and you wonder how long it will be before there are more lachrymose farewells to members of this extraordinary generation.

‘I’m a pretty sensitive person, I’m not worried about crying. Crying is good sometimes, you need to let go of these emotions,’ Nadal told Spanish media.

At 36, and having survived a litany of injuries, the Spaniard suggested that it is not the first time of late that he has been contemplating the end.

‘I was close to that moment this year, I’m not going to lie to you,’ he revealed. ‘During Roland Garros, I thought it might be my last tournament, this is the reality.

‘From there everything went very bad physically. I injured my abs (stomach muscles) twice, at Wimbledon and in New York. It’s been a series of major misfortunes, added to these personal issues.’

Nadal described himself as ‘not fine’, and the decision about whether to stay on in London as ‘a very important internal conflict’. The birth of his child, after complications which have seen his wife hospitalised in recent weeks, will be a major life-changing event.

‘They have been difficult weeks, little sleep, stress in general. Situations a little more complicated than usual at home.

‘I have had to deal with a different pressure than what you are used to in professional life.’

Nadal does not know when he will play next, but insisted he is trying not to think about stopping a career that has yielded 22 Grand Slam titles.

‘I don’t want to think about that moment,’ he said. ‘Today, what I want is to get back to normality, for everything to go well with my personal life, which is the top priority, and then organize my life in the right way.’

He nonetheless admitted that the exit of Federer is a watershed: ‘When Roger leaves the tour, yeah, an important part of my life is leaving too, it’s hard.’

Federer resurfaced yesterday to be courtside for Team Europe, a role he is sure to continue in the future as he is among the promoters of this quasi-competitive tournament.

While his top-flight career is over, providing his knee can stand it — and the evidence of Friday night was fairly promising — it is likely that he and Nadal will at some point reunite to play lucrative exhibition matches around the world.

Although overcome as he publicly bade farewell, he stated that it had been more difficult informing personal friends to tell them when the decision was made last month.

‘It was hard for me making phone calls, letting people know that this was happening,’ said Federer.

‘There I felt pain, but now it was all happiness. To be not alone on that court for an entire evening, it helped a lot.’

The Laver Cup continued on with Federer and Nadal’s respective replacements, Matteo Berrettini and Norrie, both having desperately tight rubbers with different conclusions.

Berrettini had been drafted in to take the playing position of the Swiss great and proved a more than adequate replacement by continuing his dominance over Felix Auger-Aliassime with a fourth win from their five meetings. The Italian dug deep to triumph 7-6, 4-6, 10-7.

Federer had provided in-game coaching for the former Wimbledon finalist, who said: ‘I’m not lying when I say that I’m here because of him. He was really the one that I was looking up to.’

There was little to split Norrie from American Taylor Fritz, but from 8-8 in the deciding tiebreak he missed a pair of groundstrokes to go down 6-1, 4-6, 10-8.

That left it more competitive than might have been expected, with the team points scores tied at 4-4 before the evening session, where Novak Djokovic beat Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-3 to hand Europe a slender advantage going into today’s final sessions.