Captain Paul Haarhuis keeps it real when asked his thoughts on Rafa Nadal’s Davis Cup farewell.
Photo credit: Davis Cup Facebook
Malaga, Spain is the center of the tennis universe this week.Ā
Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal will play his final event before home fans at the Davis Cup Final 8.
Fans all over the world have expressed hope the King of Clay will make an extended farewell run in Malaga.
Netherlands captain Paul Haarhuis isn’t one of them.
Haarhuis prompted laughter at his squad’s presser wishing Nadal “Happy Trails” before facing Spain for a Davis Cup semifinal spot tomorrow.
“I think everybody is excited to play Spain,” Haarhuis said. “It’s amazing that it might be the last match that Nadal plays, and we hope to give him a nice adios.
“We need to focus on ourselves. It’s Davis Cup. Anything can happen. We have been here now for three years in a row. This is the fourth year in five years. Yeah, we want more than being in the quarterfinals. So we’re going to have to play well, and that’s what we focus on.”
The Dutch side stars Tallon Griekspoor, Jesper de Jong, Botic Van De Zandschulp and Wesley Koolhof, who like Nadal is making his tennis farewell at this week’s Davis Cup Final 8.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz and 22-time major champion Nadal defeated Koolhof and Griekspoor at the Paris Olympic Games in July.
The Spanish duo dubbed Nadalcaraz stopped Dutchmen Griekspoor and Koolhof 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-2 on Court Suzanne Lenglen charging into the Paris Olympic doubles quarterfinals.
Before a raucous crowd that was chanting and cheering throughout, Alcaraz and Nadal accelerated through the decisive tiebreaker.
The Spanish side won nine of the first 10 points of the match-deciding super tiebreaker before closing on their second match point.
“I only played him once this year in Olympics with Tal in the second round of Olympics,” Koolhof said. “Yeah, full out, a full crowd in Suzanne Lenglen, which I think was one of my best experiences playing in the stadium, in a full stadium. The atmosphere was unbelievable.
“I think that’s always one of the matches which I will remember him playing, because I only played him once, even though we lost, but it was, yeah, a great memory, a great experience to play against him and Carlos at that point.
“Maybe we can do that again, maybe can do that again this week.”
Then world No. 74 Van de Zandschulp scored a stunning straight-sets upset of Alcaraz, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4, at the US Open in August.
“If I play well, I can beat a lot of players,” Van de Zandschulp said. “It’s not a big secret, but hopefully I can give some good words to Tallon, and yeah, let’s see how it’s going to go and we’ll see.”