Rafael Nadal gets a farewell ceremony at a tournament he won a record 14 times

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal’s first French Open match in the tournament’s main stadium came on May 25, 2005 — a straight-set victory in the second round against Xavier Malisse.

That made Nadal’s career record in the tournament 2-0, and he was just getting started on the way to what would end up as a 112-4 mark and 14 championships at Paris.

Yesterday, 20 years to the day after that win, Nadal was scheduled to be back at Court Philippe-Chatrier, only instead of competing, he was going to be feted by the French tennis federation for all that he accomplished on the red clay.

“Celebrating the King,” was the way the event was described on social media by the official Roland-Garros feed. There was no exact time for the start of the ceremony, only word that it would begin after the three day-session matches in Chatrier would finish — so perhaps somewhere around 5 or 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m or noon ET).

There were plenty of active players on the program for Day 1 of the year’s second Grand Slam tennis tournament, of course, from No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka to two-time major runnerup Jasmine Paolini, from U.S. Open semifinalist Ben Shelton to Paris Olympics medalists Zheng Qinwen and Lorenzo Musetti.

None, though, was likely to draw as much attention and adulation as the 38-year-old former player with 22 total Grand Slam titles and known to all as “Rafa,” who played his final competitive match in the Davis Cup in November. Some folks did not think the tribute to him after a loss in his last appearance there lived up to what it should have been, and event director Feliciano Lopez had to defend it.

Other tournaments put off holding celebrations for Nadal this season, including Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome.

It just seemed fitting to all that the next big show should come at the site of so many of those lefty uppercut forehands, so many sprints to reach seemingly unreachable shots by opponents, so many triumphs.

This is the way Nadal described the fans in Paris: “They give me the love and the support every single second I have been on court.”

They were expected to pack the house on Sunday andit sounded as if some players planned to take in the scene, too, although at least one, four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek, was going to need to make sure it wouldn’t interrupt her preparation for competition.

“I need to be aware that, for sure, I’m going to cry,” Swiatek said. “I would love to be there, because we should all kind of get together and celebrate Rafa and what he did for our sport and what kind of inspiration he was and still is.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas — twice a Slam finalist, including at the 2021 French Open — joked that Nadal won the trophy 29 times in Paris.

“It will be tough,” Tsitsipas said, “to see him go away.”  HOWARD FENDRICH, PARIS, MDT/AP