Since the beginning of this year only Carlos Moya is on the road as coach with Rafael Nadal. But Uncle Toni Nadal laid the foundation for the success.
When Rafael Nadal played Lars Burgsmüller for his first round game in Paris 13 years and two weeks ago, he was already at his side: Toni Nadal. The uncle. And the trainer since he was a child. Nadal, 18 years old at the time, won the game, it was Burgsmüller’s last appearance at the French Open.
And it was the beginning of the biggest success story for a coach/player team ever in tennis in 2005, the beginning of Nadal and Nadal’s triumph in the red sand of Roland Garros. “It’s incredible what happened in our time together,” says the 57-year-old, “it’s better than any dream.”
Toni, the man behind the matador, has not officially been his nephew’s coach since the start of the season. But when Nadal fought his way to the legendary eleventh title in France’s capital on Sunday afternoon, he was in the stands at Camp Nadal, as always. Exactly on the same spot where he had sat for ten years, in the victories from 2005 to 2008, from 2010 to 2014, and then again in 2017, in the historic La Decima mission, the run-up to the tenth title.
Not only did Nadal seem to have used the eye contact, the silent exchange of ideas with the man who made him the greatest clay court player of all time. It was like this. Toni, former trainer, was a trainer on duty, albeit not formally. “I was as nervous as ever, tense as ever. But Rafa did a great job,” Toni said afterwards. Already at the last training sessions before the final against Austria’s challenger Dominic Thiem the trainer uncle had been on the pitch, next to the current chief referee Carlos Moya.
In the tennis business the Coches come and go regularly, it is a normal process in the hectic industry of the travelling circus. But when Toni Nadal announced his retirement as Rafael coach last year, it caused a medium headline storm. Too many voices around the grandmaster are not good in the long run, Toni said, he prefers to take care of other things, for example the further development of the Nadal Academy in Manacor.
The tenth French Open title a year ago closed the unprecedented success era perfectly, it was a picture like it was painted when Nadal and Nadal were in each other’s arms after “La Decima”. “It was a moment for eternity,” Toni says, “who could have believed it?”
Toni may no longer be in office, but for Nadal, the uncle is still the most important point of reference in tennis matters. The gentle grinder had already arrived for the 32nd birthday of Roland Garros-Sonnenkönig in the first week of the tournament and had celebrated with the family entourage.
However, he did not live under one roof with Rafael and the nominal coaching team, but a few kilometres away. At the Intercontinental Le Grand near the Paris Opera. There he also spoke about the fact that he could “never quite get out of his trainer role” and “Rafa of course gives the one or other tip”: “If I see something that is important, then I say so too”.
Just like in all the years before. Nadal, the master player, is unthinkable without Nadal, the coach. It’s a family triumph since the day Tony’s brother Sebastian first brought the three-year-old Rafael by for a tennis taster. They then walked together through thick and thin, through all ups and downs, through years of bitterness and through years full of glory and glory.
“It was an unimaginable journey,” says Toni. Everything that distinguishes Nadal today as a champion, his passion, his tenacity, his unbending will, but also his fairness and greatness in victory and defeat, is Toni’s merit. He himself says it has “absolutely to do with the family side”: “I have always been able to honestly tell Rafa what is going on. I said: You’re bad, you made this big mistake. And I didn’t have to worry that I would be kicked out the next day,” says Toni, “other coaches don’t have that luxury.
Last autumn, Toni wrote a kind of legacy, an open letter to Rafael, the nephew, as an official farewell. He wrote how he tried to develop a strong and resolute character in order to get along in tennis and in life. He wrote that he had never been pleasant, had always tried at Rafael to create dissatisfaction more than satisfaction.
He wrote that he never regarded opponents as enemies and that the rivalry should never exceed the boundaries of the square. And then he also wrote that he was pleased to return to the students at the Academy in Manacor, conscious of being respected and loved for what he had done. “My nephew is the main person responsible for my happiness,” said Toni, the champion’s tennis teacher and life advisor.