The man who introduced Rafael Nadal to tennis as a child believes this year has been largely positive for the Spaniard despite his ATP Finals defeat.
Toni Nadal, who is the uncle and former coach of the 20-time Grand Slam champion, has hailed Nadal’s performance in an article written for El Pais. Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 34-year-old has won two titles and 27 matches on the ATP Tour this season. The standout achievement took place at his beloved French Open where he lifted the trophy for an historic 13th time. Nadal has earned $3,856,127 in prize money which is the third highest in men’s tennis after Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic.
“When it comes to taking stock of this strange year, the assessment has to be clearly positive,” Toni said. “Raising the French Open for the 13th time amply justifies this appreciation. But, in addition, the game exhibited both at Roland Garros and in London makes me hope to see him face a difficult but exciting season in 2021, in which he will once again have exciting opportunities.”
There was also disappointment for Nadal towards the end of the season. At the Paris Masters he fell in the semi-finals to Alexander Zverev. A couple weeks later at the prestigious ATP Finals he crashed out in the semi-final stage once again but this time it was to Daniil Medvedev, who went on to win the title. Nadal is yet to win either of these two tournaments in his career.
Reflecting on Nadal’s latest loss to Medvedev, Toni described it as a ‘great opportunity that slipped away.’ The world No.2 led by a set and even had a chance to serve the match out before losing 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-3. Prior to the clash, Nadal had won 173 out of 175 matches after claiming the opener.
“In the second half of this first set, Rafael made the right decision to change strategy and stopped playing his usual game to cut mostly his backhand and play more in the centre of the court. The intention was, clearly, to neutralize the attack of his rival, who returned insufferable blows if the track was opened,” his former mentor reflected.
“This change took effect and my nephew managed to score the first set and advance to what seemed like a definite 5-4 with serve in the second.’
“But, obviously, the script was not fulfilled that way. After not being able to score that conclusive game, he lost the set in the tie break and then, judging by the impression he gave me, the fatigue he suffered somewhat he was no longer able to maintain the same intensity in the rest of the match.”
Besides Nadal, Toni also took note of those outside of the Big Three who are becoming to be more prominent on the Tour. Including Dominic Thiem who won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open and was also runner-up at the Australian Open. Thiem could challenge Nadal for the number two spot next season.
“I am convinced that the step forward taken by Dominic Thiem, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas or Alexander Zverev, not to mention someone else, is now definitive,” he said. “But I am also happy that, for yet another year, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will fight to the limit of their strength to continue climbing to the podiums of the Grand Slams and the most important tournaments.”
The year-end ATP top 10
- Novak Djokovic SRB 12,030 points
- Rafael Nadal ESP 9,850 points
- Dominic Thiem AUT 9,125 points
- Daniil Medvedev RUS 8,470 points
- Roger Federer SWI 6,630 points
- Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE 5,925 points
- Alexander Zverev GER 5,525 points
- Andrey Rublev RUS 4,119 points
- Diego Schwartzman ARG 3,455 points
- Mateo Berrettini ITA 3,075 points
