News broke recently that one of the biggest names in coaching has started working with a top-five ATP star.
World number three Alexander Zverev was spotted in training on Monday with Toni Nadal at the Rafael Nadal Academy.
Suffering a shock defeat at Wimbledon, Zverev lost to Arthur Rinderknech in his opening match, as his wait for a maiden Grand Slam title continued.
Looking to end that wait, Zverev is rumored to be adding Nadal to his coaching team.
Nadal has been out of work since splitting with Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime last year, with whom he had worked for four years.
Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images
The 64-year-old enjoyed the majority of his coaching success alongside his nephew Rafael Nadal, as the pair worked together between 1990 and 2017.
During that period, Nadal grew a reputation as one of the best coaches around, although one ATP Tour legend wasn’t too convinced in 2015.
John McEnroe told Rafael Nadal to ‘get a new damn coach’ in 2015 and fire Toni Nadal
The 22-time Grand Slam champion suffered one of the worst losses of his career at Wimbledon ten years ago, when Nadal lost to world number 102 Dustin Brown in the second round.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live after the match, former world number one John McEnroe argued it was time for Rafael Nadal to split with his uncle, Toni Nadal.
“Get a new damn coach,” he said.
“It might be time for some fresh blood in the [Rafael] Nadal camp.”
McEnroe also suggested that other members of Nadal’s team had tried to convince his uncle to step down.
“Are we even allowed to say that? Uncle Toni’s going to be upset,” he said.
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“I know Carlos Costa, who manages Nadal, and he’s had other people.
“They have tried to gently persuade Uncle Toni, who has done a magnificent job since Rafa was a little kid. Clearly, at this stage, it would appear that some fresh ideas are in order.”
McEnroe’s comments came during the worst period of Nadal’s career, when he failed to win any of the nine Grand Slam tournaments he entered between 2014 and 2017.
Rafael Nadal’s winless streak at Grand Slams
Nadal didn’t make a coaching change immediately after his defeat to Brown at Wimbledon, but did add his fellow Spaniard Carlos Moya, to the team at the end of the 2016 season.
After Nadal narrowly missed out on the Australian Open title in 2017, his long-time coach departed the team, and Moya assumed the role of head coach.
Months later, Nadal returned to winning ways, picking up his first Grand Slam title in three years at the 2017 French Open.
With Moya by his side, Nadal won the final seven major titles of his career, finishing up on 22, a tally bettered by just one player in tennis history, Novak Djokovic.
Will Alexander Zverev and Toni Nadal be a good fit?
Zverev is currently coached by his father, Alexander Zverev Sr, having previously worked with two high-profile Spaniards.
- 2017-2018 – Juan Carlos Ferrero
- 2018-2019 – Ivan Lendl
- 2020-2021 – David Ferrer
Hiring Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2017, Zverev won the Canadian Open with the former Grand Slam winner in his corner, before they split one year later.
During a podcast appearance in 2020, Ferrero explained why things didn’t work out with him and Zverev.
“[Alexander] Zverev was, for example, three hours on the court, but he could not perform quality training for an hour and a half,” he said.
“At the time, we collided due to his lack of punctuality and lack of respect for the team members.”
A ‘lack of punctuality’ likely won’t sit well with Nadal, should the pair enter into an official coaching relationship, as the 64-year-old is known for his strict teaching style.
If Zverev hasn’t worked on that since the days of Ferrero, it’s hard to imagine Nadal sticking around for too long.
The world number three is scheduled to return to action at the 2025 Canadian Open, which begins on Monday, July 28.