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Rafael Nadal’s former coach and uncle, Toni Nadal revealed in an interview with RTVE that he tried to coach Nadal during his match against Roger Federer at the Wimbledon Championships 2019 semifinals.

Earlier, Rafael Nadal fought hard and dauntlessly in the Wimbledon semifinal before bowing to the Swiss in the 4 sets. The Spaniard certainly failed in his tactics to defeat Roger Federer for the 25th time in his career.

Rafael Nadal

One of the failed tactics included his returning position on Federer’s serve. The 33-year-old was returning his opponent’s serve too much in the back of the court. However, this tactic has worked effectively for the Spaniard on clay court but things were different on grass as Federer was taking full advantage of Nadal’s position to serve often wide.

Toni Nadal and Rafa’s current coach, Francis Roig also thought that Nadal should have changed his return position as the pair even tried to convey their message to him during the match.

Rafael Nadal

While on-court coaching is not permitted in grand slams, Toni Nadal confessed that he made an effort to instruct Rafael Nadal from the box during the high-voltage match.

He said, “I asked him (Nadal) why he did not change his return position as both Francis Roig and I were telling him that during the match.”

Rafael Nadal

“He (Nadal) told me he had not seen it, he did not understand us and if he did he would have definitely done it,” Toni Nadal told RTVE.

Toni Nadal also divulged a conversation with his nephew during the Wimbledon Championships 2019 finals. “I watched the final with him and I told him to look at where Djokovic was returning. He was much closer to the baseline than he did in the semi-finals.”



Toni further added that “Nadal admitted I was right and he was wrong in returning all the time from very behind.”

Toni Nadal certainly violated the rules as he tried to coach Nadal in one of the biggest matches and in one of the major stages of the game. The Spaniard coach was immoral in trying to instruct Nadal from the box as it could distract the opponent during the crucial moments of the game.

Rafael Nadal

The return position could have certainly affected the match as Federer was playing aggressive tennis and Nadal could have put him on the back foot by returning the serves closer to the baseline.

Earlier, Serena Williams‘ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou was penalized for on-court coaching during the 2018 US Open. The American condemned the rule and said that the rule is nonsense because everyone does it. So was the Patrick Mouratoglou right?