The legendary Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal officially retired on November 19, after Spain’s defeat to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup Final in Malaga, and since last Friday he has been in Jeddah for his first act as an ambassador for Saudi Arabia.
Nadal attended the climax of the ‘Next Gen’ Finals and on his agenda was to spend two days in the Middle Eastern country to visit schools and tennis clubs, as part of his role as Saudi Arabia’s tennis ambassador, for which he received criticism from leading tennis figures, and to which the 22-time Grand Slam winner had a blunt response during an interaction with The National.
“We are in a free world and people can talk about anything. But somehow, it’s important that people, when they talk about things, have the opportunity to visit places, to know the reality of places,” said Nadal.
Nadal’s image is key to Saudi Arabia’s tennis project
The first official act was the tournament reserved for the eight best under-20 tennis players of the season. In Saudi Arabia, they believe that Nadal’s image will help them achieve their goal of attracting a million tennis players. In their project, they also have the WTA Women’s Masters.
“I’m lucky that, thanks to my sport, I’ve been able to get to know all the different cultures,” Nadal said in his response, adding that he has “a different view of the world in general than people who are not lucky enough to visit all these places in the world,” so he said he is in a position to accept and respect all the criticism he receives, as well as his critics, because he has been able to see things from a different perspective.
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