Toni Nadal Blasts Next-Gen for ‘Achieving Nothing’

Published 09/13/2019, 11:27 PM EDT

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Former coach and uncle of Rafael Nadal, Toni Nadal is not impressed by the next-generation players as he criticized them for achieving ‘nothing’ in their career so far. He also took a dig on the rising stars for not breaking the dominance of the ‘Big Three’.

The ‘Big Three’ consisting of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic have shared the past 12 Grand Slam titles amongst themselves. The next-gen players like Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev promised to be future Grand Slam champions, however, they failed to make their mark in the major tournaments so far.

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“I am critical of the players considered Next Gen. We talk many times that they are young and have to wait a little longer, but many of them are already 23 years old and have practically achieved nothing,” Toni Nadal said in an interview with Gazzetta Dello Sport.

The Spaniard coach also praised his nephew an pupil, Rafael Nadal along with Djokovic, Federer, and Sampras for winning the major titles at a very young age. He continued, “Rafael at 19 was already at the top, Djokovic at 21 won the Australian Open and we can also talk about Sampras or Federer.”

Toni Nadal, however, was impressed with Daniil Medvedev, who reached the finals of the US Open 2019 last week.

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“Daniil is a very serious boy with a great tennis level. He has been the best of the nextgen in this year’s US Open and throughout the summer, getting to face the best players in the circuit.” He said.

The 58-year-old further praised the Russian, “I consider him a very complete tennis player, with a lot of control in the game and able to beat any tennis player. In recent years, it has been said that Zverev will be the tennis player destined to win Grand Slams in the future, but it seems that everything has changed with the arrival of this type of tennis player.“

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“I consider Medvedev as the tennis player that seems to be willing to do anything to get to the top.” Toni Nadal later added.

 

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Written by:

Varun Khanna

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Starting off as a tennis author in 2018, Varun Khanna has gone on to contribute to EssentiallySports in various capacities. After setting up interviews with the likes of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Alizé Cornet, and Noah Rubin, Varun is now part of all major ATP and WTA press conferences and has gone on to pen more than 1300 articles for EssentiallySports. He now heads the tennis and NBA division of the organization.
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