This past weekend Rafael Nadal led Spain to its sixth Davis Cup championship, winning all eight of his matches (five singles, three doubles) without dropping a set.

Nadal’s 6-3, 7-6(7) victory over Canada’s Denis Shapovalov that clinched the title on Sunday was, Kevin Mitchell wrote in The Guardian, “another clutch performance to end an astonishing week from the best player in the world.”

Via Tennis Warden:

And how, you might ask, did Roger Federer do at this year’s Davis Cup?

He didn’t – because he skipped it for the fifth straight year (as did fellow Swiss player Stan Wawrinka). In fact, Switzerland couldn’t even get past the qualifying round this year, losing 3-1 to Russia in February. (Beyond that, the Federer-less Swiss team also lost 3-1 to Slovakia in September, thereby failing to qualify for the 2020 Davis Cup.)

Instead, Federer was on a megabucks exhibition tour of Latin America that netted him about $10 million. (There’s also Federer’s vanity tournament, the Laver Cup, established to compete with the Davis Cup.)

Roger Dodger did, however, garner some attention on the last day of Davis Cup play.

From Elizabeth Paton’s Page One piece in the New York Times Sunday Styles section, headlined Roger Federer, Sneakerhead?

Pundits have been predicting Mr. Federer’s retirement for almost a decade. For nearly as long, he has defied their expectations. Lately, however, despite stressing that he is far from finished playing, Mr. Federer has started to talk more openly about what comes next.

That’s where a company called On comes in . . .

Mr. Federer has become an investor in, as well as a contributing product designer and representative for, the [Swiss running shoe] brand, which was started in 2010 in Zurich.

(To be sure graf goes here)

To be sure, every athlete looks to maximize his or her financial return from what is an inevitably time-sensitive career.

But to some athletes, competing for their country is a greater prize than prize money.

Another reason Rafael Nadal is No. 1 in much more than just the ATP rankings.