Paul Annacone: “There is no greater challenge than beating Nadal”

Rafael Nadal delighted us with the sound of his vamos for 20 years and it was time for him to say goodbye to the professional tour. The Spaniard ended his Málaga career at the Davis Cup just after La Roja were knocked out of the competition. The player leaves but his legend remains and Rafa, apart from his amazing skills, we will always remember his smile and this simple and humble character that made him one of the players most popular on the planet.

Annaconne talks about Nadal’s humility

Paul Annacone, one of Roger Federer’s coaches, knows Nadal very well after spending a lot of time with the Swiss studying his game and trying to beat him. According to the American coach, Nadal’s humility is both his strength and also his greatest weakness: “ Rafa’s only fault is also his greatest virtue. His humility was his only fault and that is also his greatest quality. Sometimes I looked at him and thought how could he not have a bigger ego. He was always so kind and humble in what he did that he stopped sometimes from going on the field and hitting the ball with all the ‘sab’ temptations he knew how to send away. When Rafa felt vulnerable, he didn’t hit the ball hard. We saw him in his last game because he hadn’t played and he was on the worst surface. His ball has a lot of spin and stays in the air, but because of how humble he was, he didn’t get on the court and started throwing balls all over the place. Again, his biggest weakness, if he had one, was humility. If you trade that for his gratitude and value, I will remember his unique balance. ” he explained on his behalf Tennis channel.

Rafa was a very difficult opponent to deal with

Annaconne knows personally what it means to find solutions to beat the Manacor bull and he did not hesitate to admit that the challenge was more difficult: ” There is no greater challenge than beating Nadal. And for me, fortunately, I had under my Roger, probably one of the most talented athletes who ever held a tennis racket in his hand, so it was very different between the two. It was always fun trying to solve the problems and find out what Roger could do to make him uncomfortable. ”