“Why am I getting so choked up?” – Williams, Swiatek, Gauff lead women’s tennis world’s salute to Nadal
The 22-time Grand Slam champion’s retirement overwhelmed Serena Williams and Iga Swiatek while Coco Gauff became a Spaniard for a brief while
Rafael Nadal (L) with Serena Williams (Tennis Mag / Panoramic)
No man, woman or child familiar with tennis is unaware of the magnitude of the vacuum Rafael Nadal‘s retirement has made in the world of racquet sport.
Nadal walked away from professional tennis on November 19, 2024, with a loss to the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup Finals. The outcome brought down the curtains on a prolific career that saw the Spaniard earn accolades of the highest degree.
With his on-court efforts, which officially began in 2001, the 22-time Grand Slam champion didn’t merely entertain the tennis world, he turned many fans into players, including Carlos Alcaraz, and vice versa.
Nadal’s popularity has transcended age, race, and gender. Hence, his departure caused a tsunami of sentiments, bringing emotions out of everyone in the outspread tennis community. Among thousands were the racquet sport’s queens, including American Serena Williams, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, and the newly crowned WTA Finals champion Coco Gauff.
“Congratulations on a career that most won’t dare to dream of,” Williams, the 23-time Grand Slam champion wrote on Instagram. “I feel so fortunate to have been able to play when you were playing and being Great. You inspired me to be better, to play harder, for fight, to never give up, and to win more. No excuses just play the sport. Your legacy will never die. Wow to see your career from the beginning to today was an honor Champ! Long live Rafa!”
“Why am I getting so choked up With [Rafael Nadal’s] retirement [?] I’m not good at goodbyes.”
Serena Williams on X (formerly Twitter)
Swiatek was seemingly lost for words, so she decided to put out a few of her photographs with the retiring legend on Instagram and went with: “I just can’t #graciasrafa”
Gauff, the leading lady of American women’s tennis, bravely opted to cheer for Spain in its last-eight battle against the Dutch in Malaga.
“Today, I am from Spain,” she wrote on X to showcase her admiration for Nadal.
Inserting tributes from every pronounced woman in the tennis world proved to be an impossible task, thus, a handful of them are catalogued below:
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