Novak Djokovic has confessed that he regrets missing Rafael Nadal's final match as a professional tennis player. (Full Coverage | More Tennis News)
Nadal bowed out at the Davis Cup Finals in November but Spain's defeat to the Netherlands in the quarter-final meant the planned farewell ceremony was unable to properly take place.
The Spaniard's most fierce rivals 바카라“ Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray 바카라“ were due to attend the semi-final in Malaga but were forced to scrap the trip.
The Serbian said: "I don바카라™t know the exact details as to how they envisioned the ceremony, but I know that the plan was to do it after the semis, if Spain were to go through.
"Murray and I planned to be there, we couldn바카라™t fit the quarter-finals in our schedule, but we were a sure thing for the semis.
"Unfortunately, it turned out the way it did. I don바카라™t know if Rafa maybe didn바카라™t want to make too much of a fuss about it in order not to bother other teams' matches.
"I don바카라™t know, to be honest, but I feel bad that I wasn바카라™t there."
Nadal beat his rival 5-4 in Grand Slam finals across their 16 years as competitors, claiming an 11-7 victory in major matches in total.
Djokovic said he will treasure his last memories playing against Nadal, saying: "We were together on the court in Riyadh [at the Six Kings Slam]. That was the moment, a nice moment.
"I saw him play at Roland-Garros, we played each other at the [Paris] Olympics.
"The ceremony, if you want my opinion, wasn바카라™t done properly.
"Maybe Rafa himself wasn바카라™t sure whether he'd play or not, if he could play some more, and then maybe it was too late to do something bigger."
Djokovic is currently in Melbourne for the Australian Open and is due to play his second-round match against Jaime Faria on Thursday.
