Coco Gauff has paid tribute to Rafael Nadal after the 22-time Grand Slam champion announced he will retire from tennis, with the American opening up on her memories of the Spaniard.

Coco Gauff spoke about Rafael Nadal at the Wuhan Open (Image: (Image: Getty))

Tennis sensation Coco Gauff confessed to being moved to tears by Rafael Nadal’s retirement announcement video. The 22-time Grand Slam winner made it official that he would be hanging up his racket next month.

Gauff, reacting to the bombshell, disclosed her admiration for Nadal and the moment she jokingly snubbed Carlos Alcaraz for a picture with his fellow Spaniard after trading pins at the Paris Olympics.

The news of Nadal’s departure sent shockwaves through the sport, with the Spanish icon choosing the upcoming Davis Cup Finals as his swan song on his home turf.

Stars like Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were quick to honor their formidable adversary with touching tributes. Gauff has now opened up about her feelings regarding Nadal’s exit from the game.

“Yeah, he was or is my favourite person to watch. These retirements, we talk about like they’re dead,” she said with a smile.

Rafael Nadal announced his retirement this week (Image: Getty)

“But he is my favourite person to watch practice honestly. The intensity that he brought on the practice court and obviously on the match court is something that I felt like watching is unmatched.

“Watching the video, [I was] a bit emotional because Rafa is all I’ve known growing up. Yeah, he’s all I’ve known. Pretty sure he’s won Roland Garros for like the majority of my life.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s something that’s unfortunate. It’s going to happen to everybody one day. Hopefully it was completely on his terms. I know maybe this year he didn’t have as many injury-free moments as he wanted to,” Gauff said about Nadal’s career.

Nadal and Alcaraz were teammates at the Paris Olympics (Image: (Image: Getty))

She also shared her memories of Nadal off the court. “Overall, the career he had is something that players and people dream of,” she added.

“Off the court he was always speaking to me, always saying congratulations to me whenever I did well. It’s something that is very rare when you come across top players, especially when they’re not on the women’s side, maybe on the men’s side. I don’t know, I just felt things he would do, he went out of his way.”

“I remember at one point he said congratulations to me the year I went to the finals of the French Open. I kind of did a double take because I couldn’t believe he was speaking to me.”

One of Gauff’s favorite memories came from the recent Olympics, where she snubbed Alcaraz for Nadal because the 38-year-old had a pin to swap with her. “Actually, I don’t think I posted the picture, but we traded pins at the Olympics, which is the one thing I wanted to do,” she explained.

“He was super nice with that. We were both waiting on the shuttle. It was the last shuttle of the day, like 11 pm. I asked him if I could have one of his pins. He gave me one. Carlos was there, too, but Carlos didn’t have any pins. I only took the picture with Rafa there.

“I was like, ‘Carlos, you can’t be in it because you didn’t give me a pin.’ Yeah, just something like that I’ll remember. And something I’ll definitely tell my kids because it meant a lot to me.”