Toni believes that his nephew, Rafael Nadal was defeated by Novak Djokovic because of his inconsistent display at the semifinals of the Roland Garros.
It was a historic encounter between two legendary players who were not ready to give each other an inch. The King of Clay started dominating the first set as Djokovic was pushed towards the back foot. However the Serb showed a great fightback and though he lost the first set he came back strong in the second to restore parity. The third set went both ways before entering the tiebreaker where Djokovic prevailed again. He carried that momentum into the fourth set aswell where again he was once trailing to eventually win a semifinal which will go down in the tennis history books. He won 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 and became the first player to beat the Spaniard twice at the Roland Garros.
Toni Nadal in his column for El Pais pointed out how this match was similar to the one at the Italian Open where Nadal increased his intensity to win the game 7-5, 1-6, 6-3. However, the Spaniard failed to repeat that final in Rome.
“In the final in Rome, which he also played against Djokovic, he continued in the same vein,” Toni Nadal said. “After brilliantly winning the first set, Rafael suffered a drop that led to him losing the second set. Luckily, on that occasion, he was able to reverse the situation and ended up taking the title, giving me great hope for Roland Garros.”
Nadal started the final on a brilliant as he went up 5-0 in the first set and looked like firm favourites to win the match. However, according to Toni, he showed some weakness which allowed Djokovic to come back in the game.
“On Friday, something similar happened again,” Toni said. “After a first set in which he clearly led 5-0, we began to see, again, some inconsistency in his game. A fact that gave wings to Djokovic, raised hopes in his chances of victory and caused the Serbian to play better and better.”
While a lot of experts and tennis fans believe it was one of the classic matches that will go down the history books, Toni was of other ideas as he felt that his nephew was not consistent enough throughout the final. According to the 60-year old his former player was punished for committing too many unforced errors which turned the game towards the Serb.
“The meeting was not of the highest level,” Toni said. “The brilliance of 2011, 2012 and 2013 was on display in some moments that made the public vibrate, but they did not achieve those on other occasions. Novak was uncomfortable and nervous in the beginning, and Rafael was somewhat imprecise.”
