New Delhi, [India], May 25 : At Rafael Nadal's farewell ceremony at Roland Garros on Sunday, long-time competitors and friends Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray came together to honour the legendary Spaniard, according to the ATP Tour website.
Before entering the court to hug the 14-time Roland Garros winner, the group gave a moving video presentation to a full house at Court Philippe-Chatrier.
"Hi Rafa, after all these years and all these fights, we couldn't let you leave like that, we really wanted to leave you a message and let you know your old pals will always be with you," Federer, Djokovic and Murray said together in the tribute video.
Nadal's dominance in Paris is legendary. He held a perfect 6-0 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Federer at Roland Garros, defeating the Swiss star in three straight finals between 2006 and 2008. Nadal went 8-2 against Djokovic at the event, and he beat Murray in both of their encounters in the French capital.
Addressing his iconic rivals on court, Nadal reflected on their shared history and how retirement has shifted his perspective.
"After all these years fighting for everything, it is unbelievable how time changes the perspective of everything. You don't know yet, Novak, probably you know already Andy, but with Roger, we have been talking about that a couple of times. All these nerves, pressure, strange feelings when you see each other when you are rivals, it is completely different when you finish your career," Rafael Nadal said as quoted from ATPTOUR.
"Now it is all about being happy about everything that we achieved. In the end, we all achieved our dreams. We became tennis players and played in the most important stages. I think we built amazing rivalries in a good way. I think we showed the world we could fight as hard as possible, but in a good way. Good colleagues, who respect each other."
"You gave me some hard times on courts, but I really enjoyed it a lot, pushing myself to the limit every day to compete with all of you. At the end, tennis is just a game, but we understand that at the end, it is only a game. So all of you here means everything. It is a great message to the world that we can be good friends even if we had the best rivalries."