“Gracias Rafa” – words plastered on signs all over the city of Malaga in the south of Spain, where Rafael Nadal is set to play the final event of his professional career, alongside his compatriots at the Davis Cup Finals.
The Malaga City Council and its tourism arm, Costa del Sol Malaga, have launched a campaign this week to honour the Spanish icon, with “Gracias Rafa” posters and electronic LED screens set up all over town, in main squares and metro stations.
The campaign also includes a massive 2.6sqm banner on the exterior of the Ciudad de Malaga Athletics Stadium, emblazoned with those words of gratitude for the country’s national hero.
A few metres across from that stadium lies the Martin Carpena Arena, the host of the ongoing Billie Jean King Cup Finals, and the Davis Cup Final 8, which kicks off with the highly-anticipated quarter-final tie between Spain and the Netherlands on Tuesday.
“Everybody is excited to play Spain. It's amazing that it might be the last match that Nadal plays, and we hope to give him a nice adios,” said Netherlands team captain Paul Haarhuis on Sunday, with a deadpan expression on his face that sent his players into laughter.
The Dutch players are well aware that this is no ordinary Davis Cup tie and the huge banner across the street is enough of a reminder of the kind of support Nadal will get once he steps on court on Tuesday.
“Rafa retiring here of course brings something special to the occasion. It's been already a couple of weeks I think it's living in the tennis world,” said Botic van de Zandschulp, who would be Nadal’s opponent should Spain decide to use him in singles.
“Also with [Carlos] Alcaraz here, you have some big names in the other team. So really looking forward to the tie, and let's see how the madness is going to be.”
While it’s safe to assume Alcaraz will play singles against the Dutch team’s No 1 player Tallon Griekspoor, it remains unclear whether Nadal will be given precedence over Roberto Bautista Agut and Pedro Martinez in the other singles clash.
Nadal hasn’t played a professional singles match since the Paris Olympics in July (he took part in the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Riyadh last month) but looked sharp during a hit with Australia’s Alex de Minaur in Malaga on Sunday.
It’s rare to see inter-team training sessions at the Davis Cup, and it was quite the surprise when journalists arrived at the practice facility to catch Alcaraz hit with Bautista Agut, only to find Nadal sparring with De Minaur on the adjacent court.
It was a special moment that united five different former world No 1s, with Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt, Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nadal’s coach Carlos Moya, standing on the sidelines as Nadal and Alcaraz were put through their paces.
Nadal’s imminent retirement has understandably overshadowed everything else happening in Malaga and Tuesday’s match against the Netherlands was sold out the moment the Spaniard announced he would be participating in the event.
Nadal’s biggest rival, Novak Djokovic, has said he will be making the trip down to Malaga to bid him farewell and it’s likely many more stars will turn up for the occasion.
A selfie with Nadal has been a highly sought-after bucket list item so far this week. Italian world No 4 Jasmine Paolini has been regularly posting on her social media a progress update on her mission to take a photo with the 22-time Grand Slam champion. She has so far got as close as the sidelines of one of his practice sessions on centre court at the arena.
The Australian Billie Jean King Cup team staged a group photo in Nadal’s path just so they could ask him to join them in the photo. The Mallorcan, of course, obliged.
In an interview with Nadal posted by the Spanish Tennis Federation, he said he prepared as best he can for the Davis Cup and is approaching this week with the hopes to “close this beautiful and long chapter of his life with final moments of excitement, but with a degree of normalcy as well”.
It’s fair to say that nothing will be normal about this week’s farewell as Spain, and tennis, bid adieu to an extraordinary figure.
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Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Where to apply
Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020.
Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.
The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
Results
Men's finals
45kg:Duc Le Hoang (VIE) beat Zolfi Amirhossein (IRI) points 29-28. 48kg: Naruephon Chittra (THA) beat Joseph Vanlalhruaia (IND) TKO round 2.
51kg: Sakchai Chamchit (THA) beat Salam Al Suwaid (IRQ) TKO round 1. 54kg: Veerasak Senanue (THA) beat Huynh Hoang Phi (VIE) 30-25.
57kg: Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) beat Tak Chuen Suen (MAC) RSC round 3. 60kg: Yerkanat Ospan (KAZ) beat Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) 30-27.
63.5kg: Abil Galiyev (KAZ) beat Nouredine Samir (UAE) 29-28. 67kg: Narin Wonglakhon (THA) beat Mohammed Mardi (UAE) 29-28.
71kg: Amine El Moatassime (UAE) w/o Shaker Al Tekreeti (IRQ). 75kg: Youssef Abboud (LBN) w/o Ayoob Saki (IRI).
81kg: Ilyass Habibali (UAE) beat Khaled Tarraf (LBN) 29-28. 86kg: Ali Takaloo (IRI) beat Emil Umayev (KAZ) 30-27.
91kg: Hamid Reza Kordabadi (IRI) beat Mohamad Osaily (LBN) RSC round 1. 91-plus kg: Mohammadrezapoor Shirmohammad (IRI) beat Abdulla Hasan (IRQ) 30-27.
Women's finals
45kg: Somruethai Siripathum (THA) beat Ha Huu Huynh (VIE) 30-27. 48kg: Thanawan Thongduang (THA) beat Colleen Saddi (PHI) 30-27.
51kg: Wansawang Srila Or (THA) beat Thuy Phuong Trieu (VIE) 29-28. 54kg: Ruchira Wongsriwo (THA) beat Zeinab Khatoun (LBN) 30-26.
57kg: Sara Idriss (LBN) beat Zahra Nasiri Bargh (IRI) 30-27. 60kg: Kaewrudee Kamtakrapoom (THA) beat Sedigheh Hajivand (IRI) TKO round 2.
63.5kg: Nadiya Moghaddam (IRI) w/o Reem Al Issa (JOR).
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
Cry Macho
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam
Rating:**
Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
Juliot Vinolia’s checklist for adopting alternate-day fasting
- Don’t do it more than once in three days
- Don’t go under 700 calories on fasting days
- Ensure there is sufficient water intake, as the body can go in dehydration mode
- Ensure there is enough roughage (fibre) in the food on fasting days as well
- Do not binge on processed or fatty foods on non-fasting days
- Complement fasting with plant-based foods, fruits, vegetables, seafood. Cut out processed meats and processed carbohydrates
- Manage your sleep
- People with existing gastric or mental health issues should avoid fasting
- Do not fast for prolonged periods without supervision by a qualified expert
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Arrogate's winning run
1. Maiden Special Weight, Santa Anita Park, June 5, 2016
2. Allowance Optional Claiming, Santa Anita Park, June 24, 2016
3. Allowance Optional Claiming, Del Mar, August 4, 2016
4. Travers Stakes, Saratoga, August 27, 2016
5. Breeders' Cup Classic, Santa Anita Park, November 5, 2016
6. Pegasus World Cup, Gulfstream Park, January 28, 2017
7. Dubai World Cup, Meydan Racecourse, March 25, 2017
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Profile
Company name: Jaib
Started: January 2018
Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
Based: Jordan
Sector: FinTech
Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018
Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups
Bert van Marwijk factfile
Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder
Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia
Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands
The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Things Heard & Seen
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton
2/5
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Rest
(Because Music)
