Toni Nadal explains why Alcaraz is more like Nadal than Federer

ATP
Sunday, 11 September 2022 at 14:50
Updated at Sunday, 11 September 2022 at 13:29
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Toni, Rafael Nadal's uncle and previous coach, has said that Carlos Alcaraz uses strategies akin to Rafael Nadal's, despite the adolescent claiming to be a huge Roger Federer fan.

Alcaraz defeated Frances Tiafoe in an exciting semifinal match on Friday, winning 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3, to advance to his first Grand Slam singles final. Good players are able to adapt their style to the appropriate model wrote Toni Nadal in his column for El Pais. He disclosed that the style Rafael Nadal emulated was a fusion of Jimmy Connors' and Thomas Muster's.

"One of the successes that good players make is to adjust their style to the correct model; that is, knowing how to see which are the most suitable patterns according to the characteristics that one has" wrote Nadal adding:

"That is what Rafael and I tried to do from the beginning of his tennis career. Even having Carlos Moya as my favorite player, also as a close figure, compatriot and friend, from an early age it was clear to me that the game model that my nephew should follow to enhance his natural qualities was a mixture of the game of Thomas Muster and Jimmy Connors."

Expanding further in the piece, Nadal mentioned Alcaraz and what he's been doing:

"This is also one of the great virtues that Alcaraz treasures. Despite having openly declared that he is an admirer of Roger Federer, he has been able to see that his line of play should follow the same paths that continue to guide my nephew. Our young tennis player has been demonstrating that same desire for victory, that ability not to give up and to fight until the last ball , that same intensity that has given Rafael so many victories and of which Carlos has taken good note, as he has gone growing up as a tennis player."

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