© Getty Images Sport – Hector Vivas
Rafael Nadal congratulated Pablo Andujar on his career and wished his fellow compatriot all the best in the next chapter of his life. Andujar, 37, played the final tournament of his career at this week’s Valencia Challenger.
Playing in front of his home fans for one last time, Spain’s Andujar suffered a 3-6 2-6 loss to fellow Spaniard Martin Landaluce in the Valencia first round. Nada, who is from the same generation as Andujar, took to Instagram to share a retirement message to the 37-year-old Spaniard, who turned pro in 2003.
“See you Pablo. Congratulations on your entire career and now enjoy your family and so many things in life,” Nadal wrote on his Instagram Story.
Andujar receives a retirement message from Nadal
During his career, Andujar won four titles in singles and achieved a career-high ranking of No 32 in 2015.
At the Grand Slam, Andujar’s best result came at the 2019 US Open when he reached the round-of-16. Also, Andujar represented Spain at the Tokyo Olympics. This year, Andujar appeared only in a couple of tournaments. After not playing on the pro level since losing in the Madrid Masters qualifying in April, Andujar came to Valencia to play the final tournament of his career.
After not playing in a long time, Andujar made a slow start to his Valencia opener as Landaluce claimed an early break and opened a 3-0 lead. Landaluce broke Andujar again in the sixth game for a 5-1 lead but missed out on a set point in the following game as Andujar managed to get one break back.
In the ninth game, Landaluce saved three break points before converting his second set point to win the first set. After winning the first set, Landaluce claimed back-to-back breaks in the third and fifth games en route to opening a very comfortable 5-1 lead.
Landaluce missed out on his first match point in the seventh game but served out for a two-set win over Andujar in the following game.
