Former World No.1 John McEnroe has told Rafael Nadal he must sack his coach and uncle Toni Nadal if he wants to return to winning ways and reclaim his past glories.
Nadal compounded his miserable season, in which he has failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals in any of the three grand slams so far, by crashing out in four sets to German Dustin Brown at Wimbledon on Thursday.
The defeat represented the fourth consecutive time that he has lost at Wimbledon to a player ranked outside the world’s top 100.
McEnroe, considered one of tennis’ pre-eminent pundits, added his voice to the growing crowd of people who believe that Nadal should dispense of Toni, who has acted as a coach and mentor throughout the entirety of the Spaniard’s glittering career.
Speaking on his BBC Radio Five Six-Love-Six programme, McEnroe said: Rafael Nadal is one of the great champions – a class act. He plays with a lot of effort and energy but, dare we say, is it time for some fresh blood in the Nadal camp? Can we say that? Uncle Toni’s going to be upset.
After co-commentator Tim Henman pointed out that McEnroe was being overly diplomatic the American replied by stating I’m saying get a new damn coach!
Both Toni and Nadal have made it clear that they don’t believe that a change of coach is in the Spaniard’s best interests. Prior to the defeat Toni spoke out against those advocating that he should step aside.
Nadal himself remained pragmatic after the defeat and vowed to bounce back. Obviously this is a bad moment for me. I need to accept these kind of things that can happen. I have done that all my career, he said.
I’ll keep going – it’s not the end. It’s a sad moment, but life continues. My career too. I have to keep going and working more than ever to try to change that dynamic.