Rafael Nadal has transformed clay-court season into a celebration of the Perfect 10.
A week after Nadal swept Albert Ramos-Vinolas for his unprecedented 10th Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters championship, he defeated Dominic Thiem to collect his record 10th Barcelona title raising his 2017 clay-court record to 10-0 in the process.
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"So yes, it’s true, we’re very confident at the moment," Rafa's coach, Uncle Toni Nadal, told the Roland Garros website. "But maybe if Rafael loses in Madrid, we’ll be less confident. We’ll see! A lot of things can still happen by the time Roland Garros comes around."
Uncle Toni Nadal covers a wide variety of topics, including his nephew's quest for a record-extending 10th Roland Garros title and his final visit to Paris as Rafa's coach, in the new interview with the Roland Garros website.
Success breeds success. Toni Nadal says Rafa's run to five finals this season was predicated on pulling the plug early on last season.
The 30-year-old Spaniard's return to fitness this season after an injury-marred 2016, including a wrist injury that forced him to withdraw from the French Open after dropping just nine games in two tournament wins, is key to his confidence on court, says his uncle.
"For a number of years, Rafael had to play through physical issues. Sometimes he couldn’t even bend his legs," Toni Nadal said. "At times like those, you lose all confidence in your body. You go out on court, but you don’t know exactly what you’ve got, or even how you’re going to play, and so your head starts filling up with things.
"Afterwards, you think: 'That’s just too hard….' But when he decided to stop last October, he got all the answers he needed. And after that, he could start playing again and he got back to a very good level straight away."
Reflecting on his final French Open as Rafa's head coach, Toni Nadal said his nephew's rise to a record nine Roland Garros titles exceeded his wildest expectations.
"Yes, it will be my last Roland-Garros. So what? I’ve been lucky enough to experience things that I never thought I would," Toni Nadal said. "I can still see myself back at the club in Manacor where I was head of the tennis school. I never thought that I would go to Monte Carlo 14 times or Roland Garros 13 times!
"No, I would never have imagined that. If you’d told me that we would be able to go to these places two, four, five or six times, I would have snatched your arm off. And at the end of the day, with Rafael, we went there a lot more often… So overall, we ended up winning a lot more than I ever dreamt we would. Yes. That’s turned out pretty well."