Rafael Nadal's Davis Cup farewell was not expected so soon with Murray and Djokovic pencilled in for weekend arrival

Rafael Nadal's farewell was emotional one at the Davis Cup Finals on Tuesday. But many of the big names who were set to be present were not in Malaga. There is a reason for that though.

As reported yesterday, Novak Djokovic was pencilled in to fly from Marbella to Malaga at the weekend with the Serbian relaxing at one of his residences there. But in reality, this was premature in thinking they would conquer Botic van de Zandschulp's Netherlands.

Instead the ceremony which likely would've featured Djokovic had to be brought forward to Tuesday night. Good news for those paying upwards of 17,000 euros to be in attendance. Not so good news for those in Malaga who were of the VIP ilk.

He was surrounded though by his closest entourage. Family and friends filled the first few rows of the stands with his father seen emotional on the big screens. His wife and son Rafa Jr were present as were his parents and Maribel his sister. The big absentee was his uncle Toni Nadal who had previously stated that he wouldn't be there.

"I'm going to miss it because those days I have work and I have to be in Rome," he said in recent statements on Radio MARCA.

"I knew that at one point or another that day of final retirement had to come. Knowing that we will never see him in a competition again, the emotion will be there, but I have been getting used to the idea for some time now."

His agent, coaches Marc Lopez and Gustavo Marcaccio and even Francisco Roig his former coach as well as Carlos Moya were also there.

But while they were the VIPs were planned to be there on Friday which was the case not only for Novak Djokovic but also Andy Murray. As per El Espanyol, rumours also came about surrounding Roger Federer. Albeit he technically did his bit with a heartfelt message on Instagram.