5 reasons why Rafael Nadal needs a new coach

It is time for Toni (R) to take a backseat in Rafael Nadal’s career

Game. Set. Match to Brown.

The crowd on the hallowed Center Court went berserk and the Twitterverse went into overdrive.

John McEnroe went up in arms almost pleading to be heard. This time his prayers were answered and one other former player, Tim Henman, joined him to aver that Rafael Nadal needed a new coach.

Nadal’s drubbing at the hands of Dustin Brown resulted in Nadal’s fourth consecutive ignominious exit from Wimbledon. Dustin Brown joined the elite company of Lukas Rosol, Steve Darcis and Nick Kyrgios, who sent Nadal packing from Wimbledon in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. Though Nadal’s Wimbledon script played out to expectation, his current form and entailing future are of paramount concern.

With just two titles coming from relatively small tournaments – one on clay at Buenos Aires and the other on grass at Stuttgart – this is the most lackluster season of Nadal’s career. Having won at least one Grand Slam every year since 2005, this could be the year where he will end up without one. After surrendering his last bastion at Roland Garros this year, Rafael Nadal is a shadow of his former self.

His serve is fragile, his trademark forehand inconsistent, his backhand just about works, his movement is half a step slower and his mental tenacity has vaporized. All these factors have contributed to his meek on-court presence.

Toni Nadal, fondly called Uncle Toni, has been Nadal’s cornerstone. Having coached him since the age of 5, Uncle Toni has taken him from strength to strength and groomed him into one of the greatest Champions to have played the Sport. However, since Nadal’s last triumph at Roland Garros in 2014 Uncle Toni’s seat in the player’s box has been a thorny one. He is often seen twitching in his seat, chewing his nails off and frantically waiting for those few moments of Vamos!

The coaching partnership with his nephew has definitely hit a roadblock and it’s about time Nadal contemplated about a new coach.

1.More play on clay can make Rafa a dull boy

Rafael Nadal : The King of Clay with his 9 titles at Roland Garros

Rafael Nadal has been synonymous with clay and Roland Garros. His unassailable dominance on this one surface has earned him a record 9 out of 14 (65%) Grand Slams and 46 out of 66 ATP Singles titles (70%). Often referred to as the ‘King of Clay’, he has thrived on grinding out matches, but this has been a double-edged sword. The lack of titles on other surfaces has raised questions in regard to his greatness.

At 29, Nadal’s body can no longer take the grind and there are other rising stars who can match him and even outplay him. Uncle Toni has contributed immensely to Nadal’s prowess on clay but has failed to add certain other elements to his game that could have made him successful on other surfaces as well.

2.The Nadal brand of tennis is too brutal for the body

Those knee braces have been Nadal’s constant companion

Rafael Nadal’s brand of tennis has 3 key elements. Raw power, raw power and raw power.

Flashes of finesse few and far between, Nadal’s thundering groundstrokes are loaded and fearsome. His brand of tennis has not only been difficult to handle for the 17-time Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer but also for Nadal’s own body. Brilliant runs interspersed with bouts of injuries have been a common trend of his stellar career. His knees have been an Achilles heel that hindered him from being his usual self in two editions of Wimbledon.

The grinding on clay, over a four-month long season, often robbed him of energy and vitality leaving little gas in his tank for the rest of the season. In a career that has spanned well over a decade, he has failed to win a single ATP World Tour Final title.

While Nadal has every shot in the book, his game has always lacked a big serve. He is an intelligent server but has never been big enough to earn some cheap points and cut down on the number of potentially long rallies. When one takes a long-term view of his career, a big serve would have helped him, cumulatively, keep his style less brutal on his body.

Uncle Toni has not been able to help him adapt to a less brutal brand of play.

3.Chinks in the mental armor

With the mental tenacity missing, Nadal looks more rattled than ever

There was a time when Nadal was a big threat to any player on the tour. His mental tenacity and intensity could be felt in the arena. More than his physicality, his mental fortitude has won him matches many a time.

For the last few months, his mental toughness has been flagging as a result of which many players, ranked out of the top 100, have had success against him. As a coach, Toni Nadal has failed to put in place a supporting structure using which Nadal could rebuild his mental armor.

4.Uncle Toni’s tough love

Toni Nadal has been very vocal about Nadal’s below par performances on more occasions than one

Over the years, it has become quite evident that uncle and nephew share a coaching relationship that has been built more on fear than on respect. Very often Uncle Toni has been vocal about his criticisms and displeasure about some of Nadal’s performances. In last year’s final at the Madrid Open, Nishikori had to retire due to a back injury. Nadal won the title by default even though he was a set and break down. After the match, Uncle Toni said,”We don't deserve the victory, Nishikori deserves it, he played better than us the whole time. We had a lot of luck today. We didn't really come back, he was hurt. After the early breaks, Nadal got tense and his opponent played at a great level."

Uncle Toni was right about the situation, but it was unnecessary to spell it out. Comments like these can only do further damage to Nadal’s already fragile psyche. His tough love may have worked in the past when it acted as a source of motivation for Nadal. The same will not work wonders at this stage of his career.

5.Too little but not too late, yet

Rafael Nadal after his Second Round loss in Wimbledon 2015, a new Coach can kindle new hope

A year away from being on the wrong side of 30, Nadal has exhausted all possible options with Uncle Toni as his Coach. Without an iota of doubt Toni Nadal has done incredibly well and can take his fair share of credit of guiding Nadal to 14 Grand Slam titles.

However, every coaching relationship hits a ceiling. There is a point beyond which a Coach can help his charge make incremental improvement that may not be good enough to compete and win at the highest echelons of the game. It is time Nadal looked towards someone else for a fresh perspective on his game.

Novak Djokovic’s decision of adding Boris Becker to his coaching team has paid off. Roger Federer added Stefan Edberg, Andy Murray brought in Amelie Mauresmo and Tomas Berdych hired Dani Valverdou. After a humiliating first round defeat at Roland Garros in 2012, Serena Williams gave a fresh lease of life to her career by hiring Moratouglou. Maria Sharapova has added more dimensions to her game after she got into a partnership with Sven Groeneveld. In all these cases, new coaches have been able to help their players make a quantum leap in their games.

It may not be a good idea for Nadal to cut all ties with Uncle Toni at this stage of his career. But he can definitely add a new coach to his existing team with Uncle Toni taking a backseat. Djokovic is coached by both his former coach Marian Vajda and Boris Becker. Federer is coached by Severin Luthi and Stefan Edberg. Andy Murray is currently working with Amelie Mauresmo and Jonas Bjorkman for Wimbledon.

While Toni Nadal can help restore old patterns to Rafael Nadal’s game, the new coach can help him add or make those small yet effective tweaks that can take his game up by a notch or two.

In summary, the Majorcan bull needs a new matador.