Toni Nadal

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Toni Nadal (2015)

Antonio "Toni" Nadal Homar (born February 21, 1961 in Manacor , Mallorca ) is a former Spanish tennis coach . He trained his nephew, the top player Rafael Nadal , from the age of four and accompanied him as a coach on his tournaments played around the world until 2017 .

With Toni Nadal as coach, Rafael Nadal was able to win 16 Grand Slam titles, which makes Toni the most successful coach in men's tennis.

Life

Toni Nadal is the brother of Rafael Nadal's father Sebastian Nadal and the former professional footballer from FC Barcelona , Miguel Ángel Nadal . In 1972 he saw Ilie Năstase play at the Masters in Barcelona , who became his idol. Two years later he became a member of the Manacor tennis club, where he also began to coach his nephew. He himself was one of the 30 best players in Spain at the time. He gave up studying law and history in Barcelona and obtained a license to train tennis. In 1990 he gave three-year-old Rafael his first coaching lessons and six or seven years later he focused on him alone.

Toni Nadal (right) with his former protégé

Toni Nadal was considered an extremely tough and strict trainer. In his youth, Rafael Nadal had to train several times on bad courts and with old balls in order to learn that a win or a defeat does not depend on the quality of the court or the balls, but much more on fitness, discipline and attitude. Toni Nadal's philosophy is that you can only achieve something with hard work and that there is always room for improvement. He was considered very humble and level-headed and tried to convey these values ​​to Rafael and develop his character, also because he believed that this can have a great impact on the results and motivation of Rafael.

In February 2017 Toni Nadal informed his nephew Rafael that he would no longer be available as a coach from the 2018 season .

Toni Nadal has three children and lives in Porto Cristo in the municipality of Manacor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from an interview with Toni Nadal. In: Tennis Magazine No. 413. September 27, 2010, accessed on September 13, 2019 .
  2. ↑ The enigmatic Toni Nadal. In: A tennis fan's scrapbook on Blogspot. October 21, 2008, accessed September 13, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Björn Walter: The end of a happy era. In: tennisnet.com. November 22, 2017, accessed on May 17, 2019 (with quotes from Toni Nadal's farewell letter).
personal data
SURNAME Nadal, Toni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nadal Homar, Antonio (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish tennis coach
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Manacor , Mallorca