“Not a Great Game”: Toni Nadal Says Neither Rafael Nadal Nor Stefanos Tsitsipas Played Well in Barcelona Final

Nadal’s uncle and longtime former coach Toni has given his take on the final of the Barcelona Open, which was won by his nephew. The current World No. 2 Rafael Nadal came through a spirited challenge from the newly-crowned Monte-Carlo champion Stefanos Tsitsipas to clinch a record 12th championship title.

However, the revered coach who is currently working with Canadian tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime wasn’t too impressed with how the final went down.

Spanish publication Cadena Ser quoted the veteran as telling reporters that the Barcelona final fell short of his expectations as neither his nephew nor the Greek World No. 5 “played well.”

Toni says it’s good Rafael Nadal won the Barcelona title despite not playing his best tennis as it will give him a boost

Toni added that though it wasn’t a “great game”, it made for great viewing as both players, though not at their imperious best, went all out for glory.

“It was not a great game, I think neither of them played well, although it was very exciting,” said the coach, who is still the director of Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy.

(Quotes have been translated with Google Translate)

Though not impressed with his nephew’s error-strewn performance, Toni said that it was good that Nadal came out on the winning side despite not playing his best tennis as it will give him a lot of confidence going into the upcoming claycourt battles in Madrid, Rome, and the French Open. He added that his nephew made some mistakes that he normally doesn’t on clay.

“For Rafael, I think it was something important that he was able to beat the No.5 in the world and win without playing very well, with mistakes that he normally does not make, is something that can give him a lot of morale for the following tournaments,” the experienced helmer said.

Nadal had opened his Barcelona campaign with a nervy win over Belarussian qualifier Ilya Ivashka

Nadal opened his campaign with a nervy win over Belarussian qualifier Ilya Ivashka and kept getting better as he moved deeper into the tournament.

In the championship clash, the 13-time French Open champion recovered from a break of serve to take the opening set.

However, in a near rerun of the Spaniard’s shock defeat in the semi-final of this year’s Australian Open, Tsitsipas won the second-set tie-break to take the match to a decider. But Nadal leveraged a decisive break in the final set to prevail 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 7-5.

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