“Every year I am making fewer decisions,” Toni Nadal opened up on feeling neglected in Rafael Nadal’s team before deciding to quit

Toni Nadal had revealed the reasons for quitting as Rafael Nadal's coach in 2017 itself.


“Every year I am making fewer decisions,” Toni Nadal opened up on feeling neglected in Rafael Nadal’s team before deciding to quit

Rafael Nadal with Toni Nadal

Toni Nadal had disclosed why he decided to quit Rafael Nadal’s coaching team. In an interview in 2017, Toni talked about his decision to stop coaching Rafael Nadal and instead focus on the young players of the Rafa Nadal Academy, Manacor, Mallorca. They parted ways after the 2017 French Open when Nadal won his 15th Grand Slam title and a record 10th title in French Open. Now he is the coach of Canadian World No.7 Felix Auger Aliassime.

Toni Nadal quoted in an interview before the Spaniard’s French Open triumph in 2017, “The truth is that every year I am making fewer decisions, to the point that I won’t be deciding anything anymore. When we traveled to Australia I had made the decision already. I have been thinking lately that it’s getting tougher and tougher. I told my wife the decision. Rafael will be perfectly attended by Carlos Moya.

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Rafael Nadal & Uncle Toni | Unstrung

Toni Nadal had developed the Mallorcan Kid into the champion he is now. Rafael Nadal himself had admitted a lot of times about the values Toni Nadal as a coach and as his uncle has instilled in him. He who had equal likes of football to tennis as a kid had to choose one of the sports seriously. His other uncle Miguel Nadal was a footballer but Toni had inspired him to choose tennis and become arguably the greatest player of all time.

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Rafael Nadal’s career before and after Toni Nadal

Rafael Nadal

The all-time leader of Grand Slam titles now, before Toni Nadal decided to part ways with him, had won 15 Grand Slams, second only to Roger Federer at that time. With his new guidance under Carlos Moya, 36-year-old Rafael Nadal was able to add 7 more to his tally until now. Carlos Moya was in Rafa Nadal’s team since the 2017 season started and the transition from Toni to Moya was smooth in all senses.

After 2 dark years in 2015 and 2016 when Nadal was not able to win any of the Grand Slam titles, the 2017 season was a year of resurrection where he reached 3 slam finals and won 2 of them. The Australian Open 2017, the first slam under Moya’s addition to the team itself was a positive result for him. He was even one break up against the eventual Roger Federer in the final set during that final.

During the Australian Open 2017 final, Carlos Moya had quoted, “I wanted to see how eager Rafa was to be back at the top. He proved to me that he was doing and will do anything in his power to be back at the top. He’s not that far away, and he has time. The young players are not ready to be in the Top 5 in the world yet so he has a couple of years to make it back. He needs to win a few matches now, just to get the extra 10 or 20% of confidence. You can not change a 14-time Grand Slam champion when he is 30 years old, but he can evolve

Now the year is 2023 and as Rafael Nadal is going to play the first round of the Australian Open in a few hours, it has to be agreed that Nadal has evolved over the years and adapted his game style to match his physical decline that came as part of the age.

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