As one of the most successful players in the world of tennis, Rafael Nadal believes he wouldn’t be where he is now if it wasn’t for those working behind the scenes.
The 12-time French Open champion kicked-off his campaign at the Rogers Cup with a straight-sets win over Dan Evans yesterday in what was his first match since the semi-finals of Wimbledon. Over the years, Nadal has managed to form a team that has stuck by him throughout. Growing up, he was mentored by uncle Toni Nadal, who stepped away from the role at the end of 2017 to focus on other commitments. He is now guided on the tour by Francisco Roig and Carlos Moya.
“Obviously having a good group of people around me, of course helped me a lot for my education, for my preparation and personal growth during all these years.” Nadal explained during his press conference in Toronto.
“The Important thing is having a group of people around you that they feel free enough to tell you if you are doing things right or not right, no? When you are changing people around you very often is difficult to find this confidence.”
Reflecting on his own experience, Nadal believes the sport has a problem with coaches being reluctant to express their full opinions to players out of fear they will get fired. It is rare that the salaries of the tour’s top coaches are publicly disclosed. In 2015 Canadian player Vasek Pospisil estimated that player’s in the world’s top 50 pay in the region of $150,000 for 30 weeks of guidance from a coach. A figure that is likely to be even more nowadays.
“Tennis has a problem that normally the player pays the coach and the physio, the team. That sometimes creates an atmosphere where the people who are around the player are little bit more scared about saying the real things to the player,” Nadal said.
“To build this confidence, the player needs to give them the confidence that they can tell you what is the real thing for them, not what you want to hear all the time. In my opinion, is difficult to build that in a short period of time.’
“If you have the same team for a long time, of course they know that they work are not in danger if they say one thing or another thing.”
It is hard to argue with Nadal’s logic given his resume. He has won 82 ATP titles, including 18 at grand slam level. The second highest tally in the history of men’s tennis. He has spent 196 weeks as world No.1 so far in his career and has ended four seasons at the top of the rankings. Furthermore, he has won more trophies on the clay than anybody else in the Open Era.
Nadal is the top seed in this week’s Rogers Cup, where he is bidding to defend his title. It is the only hard-court tournament he has managed to win over the past 18 months. Awaiting him in the third round will be Argentina’s Guido Pella.
“All the matches are difficult here. We are talking about a Masters 1000. All the players in the men’s here are dangerous for everyone.” The 33-year-old stated.
Nadal has a winning 3-0 head-to-head record against Pella and is yet to lose a set against him on the tour.
