Toni Nadal: “Roger Federer is unlikely to win a Grand Slam again”

Rafael Nadal’s uncle and former coach Toni Nadal has made some predictions for the 2019 season. The tennis specialist insists, 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer is unlikely to win his 21’s. “It seems difficult to me that Federer will lift another Grand Slam trophy. I do not obviously say it because of his game, but for the toughness of best of five sets matches', Toni wrote in a column for El Paris. “I have to admit that I shared this thought other times and the Swiss, repeatedly, surprised me. Next Gen players kept growing and improving. I believe that we saw, in the end, a step forward in their game. I understand that many of us see the definitive progress of Zverev or Thiem, although for obvious reasons I hope that it happens later than sooner. Usually, in all the sports the new generations overcame the previous ones. Michael Phelps beat Ian Thorpe's numbers; Usain Bolt beat Carl Lewis's and Ben Johnson's. For a while, I had doubts on if younger players would be able to overcome Federer's grass court game or Djokovic on hard and Rafael on clay. “And I understood that the chance would happen more for the (veteran guys)'s decline than the breakthrough of the others. And with these words, I did not want to be disrespectful. London final made me clean doubts. At the moment, for next year, I trust that Rafael fully recovers physically, with new clashes of his rivalry with Djokovic and, in general, a more open competition with the final addition of new generation.”

Novak Djokovic: “I Hope Zverev Passes Me Someday”