66067B4D-56CB-4958-93EE-01694ED99476

By Sean Rudolph
© Andy Kentla

(July 12, 2010)  Soccer enthusiast Rafael Nadal says Spain should celebrate its first World Cup victory for a year.

A week after the World No. 1 beat Tomas Berdych to regain the Wimbledon crown, Nadal was on hand in Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium to see Spain score a 1-0 win over The Netherlands and capture its first World Cup.

"We have to celebrate this for a whole year because it will be very difficult to repeat," a joyous Nadal told Canal Plus television in comments published by Reuters. "This is a generation of players that will never be matched and they deserve this."



While one Spanish team celebrated, another was coping with loss. Two-time defending Davis Cup champion Spain, playing without Nadal, was swept by France, 5-0, in the Davis Cup quarterfinals. It was France's first win over Spain in 87 years.