Uncle Toni Welcome to Come Back: Nadal

After winning the Monte Carlo Masters comfortably, Rafael Nadal is currently participating in the Barcelona Open. He is currently being coached by former Tennis player Carlos Moya having been trained by his uncle Toni Nadal for nearly 27 years.

The partnership between Rafael and Toni ended in early 2017 when Toni announced his decision to step down. He is currently cheering Nadal at the Barcelona Open, but has been rumored to lead Novak Djokovic after the Serbian’s struggles off late. 

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Nadal, however said that he appreciates Toni’s contributions to his game and he is welcome to come back anytime he wants.

‘He isn’t in the day by day (life), but he didn’t leave neither.

He is here, in Mallorca he comes to training sessions and he knows that I am happy of it. He is always an help, I am happy with my current team, but no one knows my game better than Toni. 

I never asked him to leave (laughter). He knows that he will always be more than welcome. He can head to all the events he wants.’

Nadal labelled his victory over Roberto Carballes Baena as one of the worst matches he has recently played. He won the match 6-4, 6-4 in a match that nearly lasted two hours.

‘It was one of the worst matches that I recently played, without any doubt’,he said.  ‘I started down 0-2, with worse feelings, so when not everything works, you have to accept it, fight and go through.

The most important thing was to win.’

Never mind, tomorrow (Thursday) I will definitely play better. I don’t have to change anything, only having intensity again and focusing like last week. It was the first time I faced Carballes, I was coming from the Monte Carlo win, conditions change and first rounds are usually complicated.

Nadal will look onto win his 11th Barcelon Open to take the momentum towards Rolland Garros.