Rafael Nadal’s uncle speaks out after new pupil Felix Auger-Aliassime loses to Spaniard

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Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni has spoken out after his nephew beat protege Felix Auger-Aliassime at the French Open on Sunday. Toni Nadal, a veteran Spanish tennis coach, spent 17 years coaching his nephew before joining up with Auger-Aliassime in 2021. 

Nadal can never be underestimated at Roland Garros, despite the injury issues that blighted his build-up to this year’s tournament. He was given an almighty scare against the Canadian youngster on Sunday, though, losing the first and fourth set as it went down to a decisive fifth. 

But the Spaniard kept his cool to prevail 6-3 and advance to the quarter-finals, where he will get the chance to avenge last year’s crushing defeat to Novak Djokovic. Having landed in the tough side of the draw, the 21-time Grand Slam champion will have to do it the hard way if he is to add another to his stacked collection. 

Toni Nadal had been startlingly honest in the build-up, and after the match he doubled down on his stance. “Felix is Felix, but my nephew is my nephew,” he admitted. 

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“I wanted him to win. For us, this tournament will always be special.” According to MailSport, Toni left the stadium after the fourth set, naturally unable to sit back and enjoy the decider as the match went down to the wire. Nadal’s uncle snubbed either player’s camp as he opted to sit in the neutral territory of the presidential box before leaving the match early.

“I told Felix that [I support Rafa] when he asked me to work with him,” Toni admitted to ATPTour. “I want Rafael to win. If he were to lose, it would be a less painful loss because the player I work with would win, but I don’t like to deceive anyone; I’m Rafael’s uncle and he’s more than just a distant nephew.

“If Felix played against my son… I wouldn’t want him to win. This is the same.” He also claimed that he was not planning on attending Sunday’s clash at all, adding last week: “I’ve told Felix’s coach that tomorrow [Saturday] I’ll be at the training session, but I won’t on Sunday. I don’t want to know what he tells him so that I’m not tempted to tell Rafael, whom, of course, I won’t be telling any tactics either.”

By Rafa’s own admission, his injury issues show no sign of going away permanently, and he has previously discussed that his outlook is about coping with the pain rather than looking for a solution. He showed an ability to dig deep at the Australian Open earlier this year and assessed his Auger-Aliassime tie with a cool head after expending plenty of energy on Court Philippe-Chatrier. 

“In the end, the sport is normally very simple, no?” he said. “When you play better you have better chances; if you play worse, then you have of course less chances, no?

“In that case, when I played well, I won the match. When I played not that well, I had a lot of troubles.” Nadal’s mouth-watering showdown with Djokovic is pencilled in for Tuesday. The Serb has dished out two of the three defeats suffered by the Spaniard in his whole French Open career.

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