Rafael Nadal says he has “closed the circle” on his time in tennis as his storied career came to an end at the Davis Cup in Málaga on Wednesday. “It’s in some ways good, maybe, if that was my last match,” he said after his singles match. “I lost my first match in the Davis Cup, and I lost my last one. So we close the circle.”
Nadal was comfortably defeated 6-4, 6-4 by Botic van de Zandschulp, his first Davis Cup singles loss in 20 years after winning 29 matches in a row. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the quarter-final tie ended with the Netherlands defeating Spain 2-1 to end Nadal’s career.
