Alexander Zverev reveals chat with Rafael Nadal and 'Uncle Toni' about his future

Alexander Zverev has opened up about an enlightening 10 days with the Nadal family in Mallorca after ‘Uncle Toni’ reached out to the German.

Toni Nadal is Rafael Nadal’s uncle and was also the longtime tennis coach of the 22-time Grand Slam champion.

What started out as a “long voice message” from Toni Nadal shortly after Wimbledon turned into a prolonged stay in Spain, where Tokyo 2020 champion Zverev spoke about his future and learned about his own game from Rafael Nadal’s perspective.

“[Toni] has a personality that I think can give you a lot of confidence as well, because when he speaks and when Rafa speaks, you listen. Yeah, they definitely spent a lot of hours talking to me, and they gave me some great insight,” Zverev told ATPtour.com

“Rafa gave me some great insight of what it actually is like to play against me, because he saw me as a player, he saw me now as a spectator as well. It was very helpful, and again, we spent hours and hours talking, sometimes until past midnight in some dinners and stuff like that. So it was great to be there.”

Olympic singles and doubles gold medallist Nadal led their head-to-head 7-4 before retiring last year, while Zverev goes down as the last player to beat him at the French Open – winning their first-round encounter there in 2024.

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