Alexander Zverev has refused to rule out a future partnership with Toni Nadal as he prepares for his campaign in Toronto.
After an opening round exit at Wimbledon, Alexander Zverev took a long hard look at himself in what has been an underwhelming season.
Despite reaching the Australian Open final at the start of the year, the German has not reached his high standards so far.
So Zverev needed a bit of inspiration and the German got one through none other than Toni Nadal, “He sent me a very long voice message and then I said, ‘Can we please talk?’ And then we talked on the phone for about an hour and a half,” Zverev explained to the ATP website.
“It was such a nice conversation. It was about tennis, it was about life, it was about everything.”
A conversation that was so good that saw Zverev spend time with Toni Nadal in Mallorca to give the German some advice on his game.
Although Zverev hasn’t appointed him as his coach yet, he has refused to rule out any future appointments with the Spaniard, “I went there, I saw him and it was an amazing 10 days,” Zverev reflected.
“I really enjoyed it and I’m very thankful to him and to Rafa also for welcoming me the way I did. It was really nice.
“The time in Mallorca was amazing. I’m trying to convince him to do more weeks with me, and we’ll see how it goes, but he’s a very busy man. Also he has a lot of dates that he already committed to this year, so I’m not sure how much of him you’ll see this year.
“But we’re talking about what a potential partnership could look like, for sure, and I can give you an update probably in a few weeks’ time when we know more. But I enjoyed my time there, that’s for sure.”
Not only was Zverev speaking to uncle Toni but even Rafael Nadal chipped in with some advice.
It’s advice that Zverev will hope to benefit from as he aims for a strong end to the season, “Rafa gave me some great insight of what it actually is like to play against me, because he saw me as a player, he saw me now as a spectator as well,” Zverev told the ATP website.
“It was very helpful, and again, we spent hours and hours talking, sometimes until past midnight in some dinners and stuff like that. So it was great to be there.”
Now Zverev is the top seed in a depleted Toronto draw and will hope he can rise to the expectations.
First up for Zverev is Adam Walton in a tournament he will be hoping for success in, “I’m excited to play again, and I think the time off in the summer was extremely important for me,” the two-time champion at the Canadian Masters concluded.
