Former World No.1, Rafael Nadal, is currently in the semi-final of the Australian Open 2022. He is in scorching hot form in Australia after returning from injury. 

The Spaniard played the warm-up tournament in Melbourne before starting his quest for his 21st Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. Incidentally, Rafa won the warm-up tournament to stay unbeaten in 2022 so far. However, Rafa’s longtime coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, revealed one glaring truth about Nadal in a recent interview.  

Rafael Nadal was not sure about participating in the Australian Open

Toni Nadal, known as uncle Toni, made some revelation about Rafa’s injury before the start of the Australian Open. According to him, Nadal was not sure about coming to Australia to take part in the tournament, as the former World No.1 was still in recovery mode. Also, Nadal’s form in the Slam surprised him big time. 

“Yes, I’m surprised, because I remember when three days before the start, Rafa called my youngest son to hit a few balls after being quarantined due to coronavirus. At nine o’clock, we went to train and during training, he said, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to go or not because at the moment I’m not in condition for an Australian Open,” uncle Toni revealed in a recent interview. 

“The following day, he perked up and said ‘Okay, come on, I’m going’. I think it was more the excitement of competing and returning to competition than believing in himself,” Toni stated further. 

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Certainly, Nadal’s decision to come to Australia proved to be the right one, as he is in the semi-final competing at the highest level. 

Can Nadal win his 21st title in Australia?

Yesterday, Rafael Nadal had an exhausting match against Denis Shapovalov, which lasted 4 hours and 8 minutes. In the end, Rafa won the match by 6-3,6-4,4-6,3-6,6-3. However, he had to battle with a stomach problem during the match. Despite that, Rafa is through to the semi-finals, where he will face the no.7 seed, Matteo Berrettini.

If Nadal wins his semi-final match, he will get a lot closer to the landmark 21st title, surpassing Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. However, Daniil Medvedev is in outstanding form and probably Nadal’s biggest threat to reaching that goal. 

Can Nadal win his 21st Grand Slam at the Australian Open? Let us know in the comments below.

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