Rafael Nadal's former coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, has shared his views on when the 36-year-old might retire from professional tennis.
Nadal has had a troubled start to the 2023 season as he crashed out of the Australian Open second round in January and has not returned since due to ongoing injury issues. However, the Spanish player hopes to make a return in time for the upcoming clay-court season. Yet, he withdrew from the upcoming Monte-Carlo Masters.
Uncle Toni, who coached Nadal until 2017, spoke to Talking Tennis and admitted that he doesn't get much information about how his former player is progressing. However, he did say the former world number one was in fairly good spirits, despite his setbacks this season.
"Yes, he’s feeling okay but it’s not easy to know exactly because you have to know when you compete because it’s not the same when you practice than when you compete. But really I cannot say exactly how he is.”
Toni also discussed when he thought his nephew could hang up his racquet for good. Nadal has won 22 Grand Slam titles during a star-studded career and has proven himself to be the comeback king of men's tennis on several occasions. This attitude is something that Uncle Toni feels will keep Rafa going for the foreseeable future.
"I don’t know, I never talk about this with him. What I believe, it is my opinion, that Rafael will play until he thinks that he can’t win [anymore]. But that depends [on] how good he is, how good can he practice, and then we can see but at the end, he doesn’t ask me these kinds of questions. What I say is my opinion, not the opinion of Rafael. I think Rafael needs to play normal and then see every day how he is going, and then okay.”
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