Most beautiful sporting picture for me: ‘Virat Kohli on Rafael Nadal crying for Roger Federer
Virat Kohli posted an emotional photo of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who have mostly been seen playing against each other, on his official Twitter account, captioning it "the most beautiful sporting picture for me."
Roger Federer, who announced his retirement plan last week, shared the court in his final competitive match with Rafael Nadal in a doubles match at the Laver Cup on Friday, September 23. Both of them, belonging to ‘Team Europe', lost to Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock of Team World 6-4, 6(2)-7, 9-11.
After the match, both Federer and Nadal were seen in tears at the O2 Arena. They faced each other 40 times and were dubbed "arch-rivals" throughout their careers.
Kohli mentioned on Instagram, "Who thought rivals can feel like this towards each other. That’s the beauty of sport. This is the most beautiful sporting picture ever for me, When your companions cry for you, you know what you’ve been able to do with your god given talent. Nothing but respect for these 2."
Meanwhile, Nadal stated that with the retirement of Federer, an important part of life has left.
"For me, (it) has been huge honour to be a part of this amazing moment of the history of our sport, and at the same time a lot of years sharing a lot of things together," Nadal said, paying tribute to his rival on-court.
"When Roger leaves the tour, yeah, an important part of my life is leaving too because all the moments he has been next or in front me in important moments of my life. So has been emotional (to) see the family, see all the people. Yeah, difficult to describe. But, yeah, amazing moment." Federer has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles, two less then the all-time record of Nadal.
