Wimbledon was supposed to Rafael Nadal’s salvation. His 2015 season has so far been a complete washout. Halfway through the season, he has yet to win a title higher than an ATP 250 and hasn’t reached so much as the semifinals of a Grand Slam. His reign at the French Open was ended in the quarterfinals by Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
Nadal needed something to kick his season into a higher gear. After his French Open loss, he said he was excited for a fresh start on grass. And he seemed to get it quickly when he won Stuttgart. But instead of kickstarting his season, Nadal would go 1-2 over his next three grass court matches which culminated in his second round loss to Dustin Brown at Wimbledon. Now what?
Something needs to change. When he was losing on hard courts in the winter, it could be blamed on rust and the fact that he’s generally not as strong on hard courts. When he started losing on clay, it was a bit more shocking. But now that he’s been beaten on the grass, it’s clear that Rafael Nadal is on a sinking ship and is in desperate needs of a change. He has struggled before and recovered, but this time it’s different.
He’s getting older and a simple pep talk may not do the job. He needs a complete overhaul. And there’s one easy way for him to do that. Rafael Nadal needs to change his coach. Toni Nadal has coached his nephew since he was three. They’ve have had a great run.
Twenty-five years together is unbelievable and Toni Nadal has done great things for his nephew. Fourteen Grand Slam singles titles, an Olympic gold medal and over one hundred weeks at number one. There’s no denying that Rafa and Toni have been one of the best player-coach combinations in tennis history, maybe the best. But at this point, there is nothing more Toni can do for him.
Why Toni Nadal isn't the man for Rafa anymore
Toni Nadal may be a fantastic coach, but what he’s really good at is building a champion. He’s done that. Now it’s time for someone else with more experience and skill to take over. Toni Nadal may be the best coach in tennis history, but he’s a terrible psychologist. Why is this relevant? Two reasons. One, Rafa has admitted that his current problems are mental, not physical. Uncle Toni can be very tactless and rude to the his nephew and is terrible at fostering a kind environment.
He is known for calling out his nephew when he doesn’t play well, which is good to a point. But when Rafa’s confidence is in the dumps, which it currently is, the negativity Toni Nadal brings doesn’t help the situation.
Secondly, once a player gets into their late twenties, mental toughness becomes more important because your body is probably starting to fail you and it takes mental strength to keep going. Toni Nadal is not experienced at the pro level, and does not know how to deal with this type of situation. Rafa needs a voice in his corner who has been there before, who knows what he is going through and can be encouraging. Rafa owes most of what he’s accomplished to his uncle, but he is no longer useful.
What does Nadal need
Rafa needs to be rebuilding himself as a player, but his uncle is not the man to do the job. A veteran coach with experience coaching older players is needed. Someone who understands the mental struggles a player losing their touch in their late twenties endures. Rafa is the first professional that Toni has coach at this level, so Toni is figuring things out as he goes, as is Rafa. This can’t be a learning experience for both members of this team, otherwise his career could be over fairly soon.
Learning from experience is the best way for Rafa to recover, and he doesn’t have that in Toni. Toni has built him into the player he is today and is not going to be able to drastically change directions the way Rafa needs to. It keeps coming back to how poor a mentor Toni Nadal is. It’s public knowledge that he is his nephew's biggest critic. But Rafa isn’t a kid with an ego anymore (if he ever was), he’s a veteran struggling with his head.
Rafa needs more of a say in the direction he goes with his play from here on in. If Toni Nadal is one thing, it’s controlling. He hates it when his nephew doesn’t listen to him or do what he wants. He once threatened to quit after the first round of the US Open in 2010 when the 14-time Grand Slam champ didn’t obey his uncle's wishes (He won the match in straight sets and the tournament, losing only one set).
Rafa knows what’s wrong, or at least has a better sense than Toni does, and he needs to be the leader in fixing it, not Toni. His uncle has coached him since he was three and has had a career path planned for him since he was five. So far, he has followed that path and been hugely successful.
That path focused on clay court domination and expanding to hard and grass courts. But now that Rafa is getting older and his body is giving out, he can't endure the battles on clay courts that he was used to. He needs to focus on the faster surfaces, grass and hard courts, because he can keep matches shorter and potentially stretch out his career by spending less time on court. But Toni is the man who turned him into the clay court giant that he is, or was.
That’s not who Rafa needs to be if he wants to continue playing top-tier tennis. His legacy as the greatest clay court player of all-time is secured. He doesn’t need to add to that. He needs to focus on longevity and clay will not give him that. While it’s true that hard courts are tougher on your body than clay, that doesn’t mean that he needs to play more hard court events. He needs to adjust his shots accordingly so that he’s winning shorter matches on hard courts.
This could be a fairly big change to his game. If Rafa’s style is evidentiary of Toni Nadal’s coaching, that proves that Toni cannot continue as his coach if he hopes to return to the top. Put simply, he needs to start playing a style that Toni is not a master of. Rafa needs someone who isn’t as engrained in his own ways and better understands the strategies for success on hard courts. While Rafa has succeeded on grass and hard courts with Toni, it’s been by playing an unorthodox style and fighting harder than his opponents.
He needs to adjust his game if he wants to get back to the top and he’ll need a new coach for that. Toni Nadal has worn out his welcome with his nephew. Toni may be the greatest coach in tennis history, but he’s done all he can for his nephew. At this point, he’s only going to do more damage than good.
He can single-handedly destroy Rafa’s confidence and right now Rafa needs encouragement, not whatever criticism Toni is offering. What he really needs is a change in career course and it seems unlikely that his uncle is willing to oblige. This amazing pairing has reached the end of the road and it’s time for a change. The big problem for Rafa is that he is not going to fire his uncle.
When asked recently about it, Rafa said it would be useless because the issue is not physical, it’s mental. If it was a physical issue, he would consider a switch. But the thing is Rafa has had more physical issues than most superstars and he’s never switched. Maybe something was lost in translation, but Rafa was probably just making excuses. Unfortunately, that very well could be his undoing.