THERE was no room for sentiment from the Dutch at the Davis Cup Finals, with Netherlands sending off 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal by eliminating his Spanish side in the quarter finals. Going down to the deciding doubles tie, the experienced doubles talent of Wesley Koolhof worked well with Botic Van de Zandschulp against the number four doubles player Marcel Granollers and world number three singles star Carlos Alcaraz.

The 7-6 7-6 result in favour of the Netherlands meant that Nadal’s career officially came to a close, without the fairytale of a Davis Cup title in Malaga. It was an incredible performance from the Dutch with the crowd heavily supporting the home side. For Van de Zandschulp, he played a part in history with a tight win over Nadal 6-4 6-4 in what was Nadal’s last professional match.

It was an emotional time for all involved, but Van de Zandschulp stuck to the task at hand and was able to defeat Nadal 6-4 6-4 in an hour and 52 minutes. He served eight aces and won 78 per cent of his first serve points, while the Spanish champion held his own at times but was not able to be his consistent self with just a 67 per cent success rate off his first serve.

The Dutchman also hit 19 winners to 10, and only five more unforced errors (31-26) as his work to force Nadal to make mistakes was what saw him get home. While Nadal did break Van de Zandschulp at one stage, the world number 80 returned the favour three times to grab the victory.

“In the beginning, I think we were both nervous,” Van de Zandschulp said post-match. “The first set didn’t go too smoothly, the crowd was tough, understandably. That’s what it’s like to play in Spain against Rafa. He’s the biggest sportsman that [has] ever lived here in Spain. It was a really special event.

“It’s tough to close out a match against him, knowing that it could be his last or not. I was hoping more than going for it, but in the end, I just went for it and that helped.”

Nadal was able to see a different side to both ends of his Davis Cup career.

“I lost my first match in the Davis Cup, and I lost my last one,” he said. “So we close the circle.”

While Spain did go 0-1 down, Alcaraz is essentially a guaranteed point in the other direction and that is what happened despite a determined effort from top-ranked Netherlands player Tallon Griekspoor. The world number 40 did as he always does and make life difficult for Alcaraz, but the second ranked star was too good, winning 7-6 6-3 including a bagel first set tiebreaker.

Both Alcaraz and Griekspoor produced 11 aces and one double fault, but the Spaniard looked a class above when it counted, only dropping one point off his first serve (28/29) and seven points all up. It meant Griekspoor only got a single break point opportunity – which to his credit he took – but Alcaraz secured two breaks and was able to punish the Dutchman off his second serve returning (39 per cent).

As many had expected the tie came down to the deciding doubles and while the Spanish pair was ranked higher in their respective formats, the Dutch duo stood tall in both tiebreakers to win them 7-4 7-3 and close out the match, tie and Nadal’s career in two hours and 11 minutes.

While all the talk was around Nadal retiring, Dutch double star Koolhof reminded everyone that he was also pulling the pin on his professional career after the Davis Cup. At 35 years-old said he was just looking to achieve as much success as possible in Malaga.

“I reached a very, very high level today, which I am very happy about,” Koolhof said. “I think we, as a team, did an amazing job again. Botic told me he struggled on returns, but as long as he made it on match point, I’m happy. This was one of my best matches of the year. I’m looking forward to the next one.”