In Uncle Toni's retirement as Rafael Nadal's coach, it's more than just the end of an era

“I have very good people around me. I have had a great career with all these people around me so if everything was great with those people for all these years, they are not getting worse. It is my problem. I have to change, yes. I have to change one very important thing. [I have to] be the player I was one year ago. That’s the most important change. I have got used to not finding excuses outside of myself. So, I know when things are not going well it’s myself, not the people around [me].”   

So said Rafael Nadal way back in 2015, in response to a then oft-repeated query about him looking at other coaching options.

Somewhere, ambling around tennis’ alleys with Rafael Nadal and his entourage in the dozen or so years they have been around, his quirks and mannerisms have become a part of his widespread audiences’ extended routine. Be it him zigzagging on to his side of the court, or adjusting his shorts before every point, or assiduously arranging his water bottles in a straight line, the Mallorcan’s match rituals have then come to be accepted as one of the sport’s varied traditions without which tennis looks to be bereft of an abiding continuity.

One such longstanding precedent, however, is on the verge of being paused indefinitely, beginning at the end of this year, in the wake of his coach – and uncle – Toni Nadal deciding to take a backseat from his coaching responsibilities, especially with regard to touring along with the 14-time Grand Slam champion.

Toni Nadal: The indispensable member of Rafael Nadal’s team

“I have travelled for many years with Rafael, but now I want to return to the training of young people and our Academy is the perfect place to do it,” specified the 55-year-old, citing a change in priorities as the prompt for him to take a call on his future as an active part of Rafa’s team during the 11 months of the ATP Tour.

In the course of the last couple of years, irrespective of Rafa’s strident refusal to get himself a supercoach – which he now does in Carlos Moya, there were indications that changes to his coaching camp were imminent, more on the lines of when rather than an obscure if.

The relatively easier transition by way of Moya’s addition into the team meant that Toni Nadal could choose to step back when he wanted to, all the while assured that Rafa’s career had been handed over to someone who would invest as much time and effort – if not more – in ensuring that the scope of Rafa’s future was not limited to his past exploits alone.

In all these years of watching Rafa mature as a teen sensation to a fortuitously nuanced player, traipsing from one success to another, Toni has not had just been Rafa’s Tio alone, but has come to be regarded as a global reference point as “Uncle Toni” to everyone. Funny as it has been to acknowledge the senior Nadal’s contribution in such manner, the depth of affection and the immenseness that envelop this honorific is, however, unmistakable.

What has made Toni Nadal so special?

Coaches, much like the players, come in all kinds. There are those who get antsy and volubly upset when their players miscue their points. Then, there are those who prefer to stretch their vocal cords in support of their charges, regardless of whether the match is going the player’s favour or not. And then there are those, like the senior Nadal, who remain stoic throughout the game only to intersperse it with extolling cheers when their prodigies are on the cusp of victory.

Beyond these facets though, the intertwined relationship between the two has also been visible in the way Toni’s presence in the player’s box has lent a steadiness to Rafa’s on-court performance throughout the years. It’s true that there has been friction on this particular subject with Rafa’s rivals – including Roger Federer – pointing out alleged coaching tactics being discussed between Toni and Rafa, but most often it has been the mere exchange of looks, as if Toni were providing moral support, that has earmarked the lengthy chapters of the Spanish coaching discourse.

Going forward, even with Moya, a trusted friend, mentor and fellow Mallorcan by his side, Rafa will still need to retrace his steps and find a niche of comfortableness that will be unique to Moya, much as it was for his predecessor.

There again, it will be yet another uphill route for the 30-year-old to traverse, for it will be a road he will have to map on his own, without his uncle guiding him along. And while, in doing so, Rafael Nadal will have finally come to his own, it will be with a gnawing sense of nostalgia, once again evoking the astonishment in the unconventional way Toni Nadal set about his objective in the first place.