"A little respect and memory" - Rafael Nadal's coach Carlos Moya hits out at Patrick Mouratoglou

Rafael Nadal's coach Carlos Moya has hit out at Patrick Mouratoglou for a comment the Frenchman made about the 21-time Slam champion.

During a recent discussion on France Television, Mouratoglou claimed that Nadal may struggle at Roland Garros this year due to a lack of match practice.

Nadal sustained a stress fracture in his ribs at the Indian Wells Masters in March, following which he was sidelined from the tour for more than a month. He only recently resumed training but has admittedly been unable to practice anything other than his serve ahead of the Madrid Masters, his comeback tournament.

Against that background, Mouratoglou suggested that Nadal might struggle to find his best tennis at Roland Garros, leaving him vulnerable.

"He (Rafael Nadal) is not going to play many games and it is very rare that he arrives in Roland-Garros with so few matches," Mouratoglou said. "So, this tournament will be a little unknown to him. Despite his incredible start to the season, Rafa has always been a player who needed to play a lot. It's not going to come in its best form."

Carlos Moya did not take kindly to Mouratoglou's comments and responded by highlighting some of Nadal's mind-boggling records that, according to the Spaniard, command "respect."

"17 years in a row top 10, Roland Garros'20 with 3 matches in 7 months, Australian Open'22 with 3 matches in 6 months... a little respect and memory," Moya tweeted.

Rafael Nadal won Roland Garros in 2020 with only 3 matches under his belt

Delving a bit deeper into Carlos Moya's statement, it appears as though his claims were a bit inaccurate. Nadal did indeed play only three matches coming into the 2020 French Open. However, it is pertinent to note that most tennis players were unable to play any matches for large parts of that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nadal also did not have any major injury concerns going into the event that year, which is not the case this time around.

While Moya is correct about his ward spending a whopping 17 years in the top 10, he is slightly off the mark with his claims regarding the Mallorcan's 2022 Australian Open run.

The 45-year-old wrote that Rafael Nadal won this year's opening Slam with just three matches under his belt in the six months prior to the event. However, Nadal played and won four matches at the Melbourne Summer Set itself. He also played a further two matches in August 2021 at the Citi Open in Washington.