It is the end of an era for Rafael Nadal supporters. After dominating the court for almost two decades, the Mallorcan legend will bid adieu to his favorite sport. While the majority paid him a traditional tribute, Naomi Osaka made a special gesture. Remembering her legend uniquely, Osaka shed light on Rafael Nadal’s intimidating career moments, highlighting why he is admired as a legend of the sport.

Osaka had an adorable message for Rafael Nadal, highlighting his incredible talent in the sport. It has been a few days since Nadal announced retirement calling his participation in the Davis Cup Final 8 his career’s last professional tournament. This news saddened the fraternity, with the majority in the circle dropping gratitude posts for the Spanish legend. Sabalenka, who is in Wuhan, also shared her feelings, mentioning she “had tears” in “her eyes.” Even the WTA number one had an emotional message for Rafa as she hoped the Spaniard would “enjoy the other part of” his life and “hopefully maybe some other career”  because Swiatek “believed the sky is the limit for” Rafael Nadal. While the WTA toppers kept their gratitude-post traditional, Naomi Osaka chose a different path.

The Japanese player shared the Spaniard’s intimidating factors through memes to commemorate Nadal’s epic professional career. A clay court specialist in his 23-year-long career, Nadal was subjected to many memes that highlighted his greatness. She shared an image on her IG Story where Nadal could be seen on the air almost after making an average 3/4 feet high jump because of his debut selection in the French Open’s main draw. She added tears in her eye emoji to showcase the incredible tenacity and spirit of the ATP star. “POV you just qualified for your first main draw French Open and see this” was captioned on the photo, again expressing how intimidating Nadal was in his initial years.

In 2005, Nadal qualified for the Roland Garros for the first time and surprised everyone by winning the title. Needless to say why he became the subject of memes afterward. People didn’t laugh at him but highlighted why he was a legend. Referred to as “one of the greatest feats in sport“, Nadal’s 2005 Roland Garros achievement showed his true potential, and sharing its snippet expresses how much Osaka admired the Mallorcan legend.

The Japanese WTA star is a fan of Rafael Nadal. After her revelation about the legend in an interview in 2022, Osaka confirmed that she idolized the legend.

Naomi Osaka shares the lesson she learned from Rafael Nadal

During the 2022 Madrid Open, the WTA star revealed that she learned one thing from the Spaniard. “Yes, I think I stole one of the things that he did and I’ve been practicing it recently. It’ll either go really good or really bad. There’s like no in between. But I think as I’ve been doing it, it’s been going pretty well. I’ve actually been warming up kind of left-handed but I don’t think that’s a skill that’s going to show itself anytime soon,” she said in the press conference. Her statement showed how intensely she monitors the Spaniard’s play style. Following Osaka’s new lesson, the fraternity becomes curious if she plans for a deadly clay-court improvement.

Nevertheless, Naomi Osaka’s cool gesture to remember Rafael Nadal’s greatness warmed the hearts of many. It showed the whole fraternity’s sadness about the news. However, all things come to an end. Following Nadal’s retirement, the anticipation lies about his last performance in the Davis Cup. Are you excited?