Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Friday September 13, 2024 at 4:14 p.m.
Uncle and former coach of Rafael Nadal, Toni Nadal gave his thoughts on the debate over the best player in history, between his nephew, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
Although he has not been the coach of his illustrious nephew, Rafael Nadal, since the end of 2017, Toni Nadal, who devotes himself to the “Rafa” academy in Majorca, then returned to professional tennis by becoming an advisor to Félix Auger-Aliassime from 2021, before taking a step back. And he keeps a keen eye on the ATP circuit, and in particular on an almost eternal debate: who is the best player in history? The Majorcan is necessarily biased, he who became the most successful coach in history thanks to his nephew, before being overtaken by Marian Vajda, the former coach of Novak Djokovic. But listening to Toni Nadal, interviewed by Euronews, it would rather be between the Serbian and Roger Federer that there is a match for this unofficial title. And this despite the fact that Djokovic is the one who has won the most Grand Slam tournaments (24) ahead of Nadal (22) and Federer (20), a Swiss whose enormous talent he had already praised.
“Ultimately, the best is Djokovic”
“The one who played the best was Roger Federer. The best was Novak Djokovic. In terms of duration and because Djokovic won more titles than the others. Who could be the best without the injuries? My nephew, Rafa, but he was often injured. In the end, the best is Djokovic, but in my opinion, what I saw on the court when Federer was playing, no one has ever done it,” confided Toni Nadal, who did not fail to recall how much the body of the “Bull of Manacor”, record holder for Roland-Garros titles, suffered. And he also stressed the importance of work, because “natural talent is not enough”: “You are born to be number one. You are born with natural talent. But at the same time, you have to work hard, because natural talent is not enough. Of course, it is very difficult to achieve the goals that Roger Federer can achieve.”
