Rafael Nadal said he has left both a sporting and personal legacy after retiring from professional tennis on Tuesday at the Davis Cup.

The 38-year-old was beaten in the opening singles rubber of the quarter-finals as Netherlands defeated Spain 2-1 to reach the final four.

Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam winner, enjoyed a glittering and historic career over the past 23 years.

“I leave with the peace of mind that I have left a legacy, which I really feel is not just a sporting one but a personal one,” Nadal told fans in Malaga in a speech during a ceremony to honour his retirement.

“I understand that the love I have received, if it was just for what happened on the court, would not be the same.”

Nadal paid credit to many who have helped him along the way, including his uncle Toni Nadal, who coached him as a child and for a large part of his career.

“The titles, the numbers are there, so people probably know that, but the way that I would like to be remembered more is like a good person, from a small village in Mallorca,” continued Nadal.

“I had the luck that I had my uncle that was a tennis coach in my village when I was a very, very small kid, and a great family that supports me in every moment…

“I just want to be remembered as a good person, a kid that followed their dreams and achieved (even) more than what I had dreamed.”

Nadal was celebrated with a video montage on the many screens around the Martin Carpena arena in Malaga where over 10,000 fans saw his career come to a close.

Former rival Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Serena Williams and other tennis greats left messages in the video, alongside former Spanish football stars including Raul and Andres Iniesta, who retired from playing in October.

“I leave the world of professional tennis having encountered many good friends along the way,” said Nadal in his emotional speech.

The Spaniard said he hoped to be a “good ambassador” for tennis in the years to come and was not afraid to begin his retirement.

“I am calm because I have received an education to take on what is coming next,” he explained.

“I have a great family around me who help me with everything that I need every day.”

‘ETERNAL’

After Nadal lost to Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-4, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (7/0), 6-3 to force a doubles decider.

Van de Zandschulp and Wesley Koolhof secured a 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/3) victory over Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers to bring the curtain down on Nadal’s career.

World number three Alcaraz, 21, is one of the game’s brightest talents and a player some hope can become Nadal’s heir.

“His legacy is going to be eternal,” Alcaraz told reporters.

“He has been great for tennis, for the sport in general, it is difficult — at least for me — to feel that I should continue the legacy that he has left.

“It is difficult, almost impossible, I will just try to do my best, right now it’s time to say great things about Rafa…

“It is just great to have had Rafa in tennis, in Spain and in my life.”

Nadal fought hard in his final match in front of huge home support but ultimately came up short.

“He gave everything he had in the tank, all of his energy… it’s sad to see him go but we have to accept it,” added Alcaraz.

Spain’s Davis Cup captain David Ferrer also paid tribute to Nadal.

“There are people who will be remembered for their achievements in life, others until the end of their days, and others eternally,” said Ferrer.

“You will be remembered eternally.”

Nadal thanked fans in Spain in his speech but also around the rest of the world where he found many admirers.

In Paris, where he won a record 14 French Open titles and earned the nickname the ‘King of Clay’, his image was projected onto the night sky in front of the Eiffel Tower.

“I am crying as we speak… Rafael Nadal… What an absolute icon of sport period! There will never be another one like Rafa!” wrote former world number one Boris Becker on social media platform X.

Lebanese footballer Celine Haidar was about to make her dream of playing for the national women’s team come true, but debris from an Israeli strike left the 19-year-old in a medically induced coma.

After full-blown war erupted in September, Haidar’s family were among more than a million people who fled south Beirut and other Hezbollah strongholds, as Israeli bombs rained down.

“But Celine had to come back to (south) Beirut for her studies and training,” her father Abbas Haidar told AFP.

“She would leave the house after evacuation calls were issued or bombing intensified, then she’d come back home at night to sleep,” he said.

Now, she is the latest athlete to become a casualty of Israeli strikes, which already forced the Lebanese Football Association to postpone all domestic football competitions indefinitely.

On Saturday, her father called her to warn of new evacuation orders published by the Israeli military online and she left the house.

But soon after, “my wife called to tell me Celine was in the hospital,” he said.

She had been seriously wounded in an Israeli strike on her home neighbourhood of Shiyah, as the air force pummelled Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Cracked skull

Footage of Haidar lying unconscious on the ground, her face covered in blood, while a young man beside her cried in pain took Lebanese social media by storm.

“The strike was close and she was hit in the head,” her mother Sanaa Sharhour told AFP. “My daughter has a brain haemorrhage, her skull is cracked.”

Sharhour said her daughter had sent her a message asking her to prepare her favourite dish, but “an hour later her friend called to say she had been wounded”.

“My daughter is a heroine, she will get up,” she said, her eyes red with tears.

“She dreamt of competing abroad. She said she wanted to be like (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi… She wanted to be a star and for everyone to talk about her.

“Now everyone is talking about her because she was wounded in a war that she has nothing to do with.

“They killed her dream.”

‘A fighter’ on the pitch

Haidar was a pillar of her club, Beirut Football Academy (BFA), which won the Lebanese Women’s Football League last season without dropping a single point, and was due to don the captain’s armband this season.

The midfielder was also part of the national women’s Under-18 team that won the 2022 West Asian Football Federation championship.

Now she is in a medically induced coma, team manager Ziad Saade said.

“The doctors are following her very closely,” her father told AFP from the Saint-Georges Hospital in Beirut where his daughter is being treated.

“But her injuries are serious, we hope she will gradually heal,” he said with tears in his eyes.

“We’re paying the price for something that’s not our fault.”

Lebanese authorities say more than 3,544 people have been killed since Hezbollah began trading fire with Israel in October last year, with most deaths recorded since Israel stepped up its campaign in September.

“On the pitch, she’s a fighter, she was the link between defence and attack,” coach Samer Barbari said, as he and teammates visited her at the hospital.

“She is an exceptional girl and an excellent player.” 

England’s Charley Hull fired a two-under par 68 and clung to a one-stroke lead over top-ranked Nelly Korda and China’s Zhang Weiwei after Saturday’s third round of the LPGA Annika tournament.

Hull found water at the 18th hole and made bogey but kept the lead alone when Korda three-putted for bogey in near-darkness at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.

“Played pretty solid. I felt like I played well all day,” Hull said. “But finishing in the dark wasn’t that fun. Shame to finish on a bogey but it was a good up-and-down.”

That left Hull on 12-under 198 with US star Korda, a six-time winner this year, shooting 67 to stand second on 199 with Zhang, who fired an LPGA career-low 62 to leap into contention.

“I just felt it was amazing day,” Zhang said. “I don’t know how to play that well today. Just keep patient and just like normal and then I holed a lot of putts. That made me so surprised on some holes.”

Thailand’s Wichanee Meechai and South Korea’s Im Jin-hee shared fourth on 201 with Germany’s Olivia Cowan fifth on 202 and a pack on 203 including Japan’s Minami Katsu, Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and Americans Rose Zhang and Bailey Tardy.

World number 12 Hull, a two-time LPGA winner seeking her first tour victory since October 2022, won her fourth Ladies European Tour title — and first in three years — two weeks ago at Riyadh.

Korda, in her first event after a neck injury sidelined her last month, seeks her first victory since June.

Dark end irks leaders

Hull opened with a birdie, added another at the par-5 seventh and had three birdie-bogey runs in the final seven holes — at the par-3 12th and par-4 13th, the par-5 14th and par-3 15th and the par-4 17th and 18, where she sank a four-foot bogey putt after a splashdown on her approach.

“It was kind of dark. Then it got the wind up, and I hit a really good 7-iron in and hit it pure. It just come up short in the water,” Hull said.

“Tricky little up-and-down, but my putt, I could barely see the hole. I couldn’t see the break or anything. So it was pretty dark to finish in.”

Korda stumbled early with bogeys at the second and fourth holes but closed the front nine with back-to-back birdies. She added birdies at 11 and 14, birdied 16 and 17 then had a three-putt bogey at 18 after a four-foot par putt miss.

“I had a good middle of the round. Just played some solid golf on the back nine and started hitting my driver a little better,” Korda said.

She wasn’t happy about finishing in the dark either.

“Was a little bit of poor planning by starting so late for us,” Korda said. “Whenever you’re sitting on 18 and the sun is already down, it’s never nice, especially with how slick these greens are and you can’t properly see.

“At the end of the day I’m the one that missed it.”

Zhang, 27, is a five-time China Tour winner whose best LPGA finish was a share of 10th at Portland in 2022.