Iga Swiatek makes her feelings known on Serena Williams getting ‘choked up’ over Rafael Nadal’s emotional farewell at Davis Cup Finals

This was the Spaniard’s first defeat to the Dutchman, having won their two prior encounter.

With emotions running high over the Spaniard’s retirement, Serena Williams shared on X (formerly Twitter) that she was getting choked up over his farewell. A few hours later, Iga Swiatek reposted Williams’s tweet and added a crying cat meme as her caption.

“Why am I getting so choked up. With @RafaelNadal retirement. I’m not good at goodbyes” Serena Williams wrote.

Iga Swiatek also reposted a video shared by the Davis Cup’s official page on X, which featured Spain’s Davis Cup team singing the national anthem. She included a crying emoji in her caption and wrote:

“Too much.”

The farewell messages continued, as World No. 3 Coco Gauff also reacted to the video with a teary-eyed emoji.

In the other matches between Spain and the Netherlands, Carlos Alcaraz won Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 to tie the match. However, the Dutch team of Wesley Koolhof and Botic van de Zandschulp defeated Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3) in the final match, securing a spot in the semifinals, where they will face either Germany or Canada.

Iga Swiatek referred to Rafael Nadal as her biggest inspiration in tennis

When Rafael Nadal announced his retirement in October, Iga Swiatek recorded a video paying tribute to the Spaniard, referring to the 22-time Grand Slam winner as her biggest inspiration in the sport. She said:

“Because of your announcement today, I think this is gonna be a really special day for every tennis fan and I wanted just to speak about my appreciation and what your career meant to me because you were and still are the biggest inspiration that I ever had in tennis and the reason why sometimes I got extra motivated, I kept pushing myself, so thank you for that,”

Swiatek concluded her season at the WTA Finals, where she was eliminated early in the round-robin group stage. She finished the year with five titles, including the French Open, and a win-loss record of 56-8.