Felix Auger-Aliassime opens up about uncle Toni Nadal controversy
ATPSaturday, 14 January 2023 at 15:55
Updated at Monday, 13 January 2025 at 21:35
Felix Auger-Aliassime and his coach, Toni Nadal, uncle of Rafael Nadal were part of a small controversy during the 2022 season.
At the Roland Garros, the Canadian, who is now coached by Toni Nadal, who was part of Rafael Nadal's team for many years, met Rafael Nadal for the first time since his partnership with the Spanish coach began.
Prior to the meeting, Toni Nadal said that he wanted his nephew to win, and many fans were surprised by that. Now, the Canadian addressed the controversy.
"I had been working with him for a while. It’s a discussion that we had from day one about potentially playing Rafa… [that] normally that he might sit it out and not be in the box or just watch from a neutral place. It was still nice to see him at the match, though. Of course I saw him in the front row."
"It was nice to see him there just to know he was in the stadium watching the match, watching over us. So he’s been an important part also of my success in the past two years. I was happy that he was there, actually. But no, it didn’t bother me in any way."
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Auger-Aliassime was the only player who was close to stopping Nadal from winning his 22nd Grand Slam title, as he took the match into the deciding set. However, he admitted that he was not aware of that in the heat of the battle.
"I was really just locked in on the idea of winning. You know as a player that in order to win it’s more about how you’re going to play, and the choices you’re going to make and also how well you’re going to execute your game plan that’s going to make the difference."
"After the match is done then you can look back… then you can appreciate the moment or what you’ve been able to do, but when the match is not over yet, you’re really just trying to find a way to win."
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