You can all decide which of the Big Four are represented here as you please. I think Roger’s Dorothy and Rafa’s Trudy.

The match is over. Federer’s competitive career is over. The way he chose to go out, playing alongside Rafael Nadal, his fiercest rival and close friend—and in a team setting, no less (his European Laver Cup team also included the rest of the ‘Big Four,’ Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray)—was perfect.

People joke about Federer’s egocentrism because he’s so matter-of-fact in discussing his accomplishments. But the enormous respect and remarkable friendship he shares with Nadal, and their abiding belief that no one player is bigger than the sport, is a moving testament to the character of both men.

Nearly a half-hour after the post-match ceremony ended, my heart still feels as though it’s gripped in a vise. I had a hard time on the night of Serena’s retirement, but this was markedly worse for reasons that are impossible to articulate. Few things in my life ever meant as much to me as watching Roger Federer play tennis.

My wife isn’t much of a tennis follower and couldn’t claim to understand my deep reserves of tears on either occasion. Nor did she fully appreciate what it meant to see Nadal show as much emotion as he did tonight, both during and after the match. Roger has always been far more liberal than Rafa in sharing his tears with the world, but it was Nadal’s waterworks that really made me lose it at times this evening.

In a kind gesture, I was wordlessly handed a box of Kleenex shortly after the post-match celebration began. My first impulse was to make a joke, but it was one only tennis fans would understand. In 2009, Nadal dealt Federer a truly crushing defeat in the Australian Open final. During the trophy presentation, Federer openly wept. “God, it’s killing me,” he said. That’s how we all felt tonight.