“We have been friends for 20 years,” Feliciano Lopez explains. “As a human being, he is amazing, and I am very proud to be considered one of his friends.”
The 43-year-old gushes with praise and kind words as he talks about his former opponent, team-mate and pal Rafael Nadal, who this week called time on his extraordinary tennis career.
Nadal bowed out at the Davis Cup Finals on Tuesday night, losing 4-6, 4-6 to the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp — his first Davis Cup singles loss in 20 years after 29 consecutive wins.
Nadal, 38, who won 22 Grand Slams and spent 912 consecutive weeks in the world’s top 10 during a dizzying career. His tally of 14 French Open titles is the most times any player has ever won a single Grand Slam, and his first US Open title in 2010 at the age of 24 made him the youngest man in the Open era to win all four Grand Slams.
Lopez hopes to be lifelong friends with Nadal. He tells Standard Sport: “The first time I saw him he was probably 15 years old. That was also the first time we shared the court, on a practice session. Since then, I have seen many different Rafas.
“I’ve always been very close to him. I just wish Rafa the very best for his life, for this new chapter. I think he is going to be very happy, because he is a very passionate person, very active, willing to do things all the time. I am sure he is going to enjoy his life after tennis.”
Lopez, a former Davis Cup-winning teammate of Nadal’s, is now 43 and the Davis Cup tournament director.
“I am very thankful, very grateful for everything he has done for the sport,” Lopez says.
“He is a very shy person; this is something that probably nobody knows. The moment you get to know him a little bit more, he can be very funny. Everything he does he does with passion. It is very nice to see someone with so much enthusiasm for everything he does.
“One of the reasons for him to be such a great competitor is self-belief. A lot has been said regarding his attitude on court and fitness condition, but I think he is great tennis player. Technically, tactically, he is probably if not the best one then the second or third in the history of the sport.
“Tennis-wise, he is so powerful. It is very difficult to face someone that is playing with the same amount of intensity every single point and doesn’t give you any break at all.”
Between them, Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic won 66 Grand Slams — with Djokovic still playing and still in the hunt for more. The trio defined the last two decades in men’s tennis.
“They have a massive admiration for each other,” Lopez reveals. “That is part of the success they have had — the respect that they showed over the last 20 years. Their contribution to tennis is out of this world. Tennis is on a completely different level now than 20 years ago, because of Roger, Rafa and Novak.”
Records tumbled throughout Nadal’s outstanding career, and Lopez believes the man from Mallorca will retire with a peerless legacy.
“He will be remembered as one of the best in history, of course, but I think his personality is almost comparable to his skills as a tennis player,” he says.
“He has to be very proud. I think that is pretty remarkable.”
