Toni Nadal believes modern tennis has become too reliant on power, claiming players can now ‘hit a winner from anywhere on the court’ and accusing some of the sport’s leading stars of ‘lacking motivation’.
The Spaniard coached his nephew, 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, for nearly 30 years, forming one of the most successful partnerships in tennis history.
Since their coaching partnership ended in 2017, Nadal has briefly worked with Felix Auger-Aliassime and continued to pass on his expertise to young players at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca.
In the post-Wimbledon period, both Nadals have also been spotted alongside world No 2 Alexander Zverev as he prepared for the remainder of the hard-court season at the esteemed academy.
Despite remaining heavily involved in the sport, Nadal has now outlined a bold proposal for how tennis could be changed to place greater emphasis on skill and rally construction.
The former coach believes modern racket technology has made it too easy for players to generate power, and has called for rackets to be made smaller.
“For me, there is a simple thing that needs to be changed in tennis,” began Nadal during an interview with Euronews.
“We need to make the rackets a little smaller. If we do that, tennis will become, in my opinion, easier for amateurs and harder for professionals.
“The reason is that you will be forced to build the rally to score points. Today you can hit a winner from anywhere on the court, but before it wasn’t like that. You had to prepare the point, create the conditions to finish it, think about where to send the ball and, at some point, go up to the net.
“Now you can stand two metres behind the baseline, just move your arm, stretch and score. If the rackets get a little smaller, maybe you won’t have the same power and you’ll have to run more and have more control over the ball.”
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Nadal also offered his assessment of the current generation, praising Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz while questioning the consistency and motivation of players such as Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“Journalists often ask me what will happen after the end of Rafael [Nadal], [Roger] Federer and [Novak] Djokovic, and I answer that nothing will happen,” he added.
“Because after Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and McEnroe, nothing happened. Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi arrived.
“Every year there will be a winner at Wimbledon and Roland Garros. The only point, for me, is that we need 10-15 players to fight in every tournament and this does not happen today.
“Alcaraz and Sinner are enormously talented. Zverev is also a very strong player, even if he has dropped a bit in the last period. The problem is that in the past the players behind the trio of Rafa, Federer and Djokovic were tennis players of the highest level.
“[Andy]Murray was an impressive player, Del Potro was very strong despite his wrist problem, David Ferrer was always there, and Wawrinka. Today they stay two years at the top of the rankings and then collapse.
“In my opinion, they lose the motivation to fight in every match.
“Many can play well, but the truth is that now many lose a lot of matches. In the past, David Ferrer, for example, lost to the greats like Federer, Djokovic or Murray, but not to the world No 100. Today this happens often.
“I remember a few years ago I was watching Tsitsipas. He was extraordinary. When he won the Masters, when he reached the final at Roland Garros, he was very strong. But then I think he lost motivation and confidence, and today Tsitsipas is way below the level he had. Rublev is far from his best, even Zverev.”
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