Toni Nadal has just made a very bold claim about Carlos Alcaraz after watching his Netflix documentary.
Having cultivated the relentless talent that was Rafael Nadal, he knows exactly what it takes to get to the top. However, what his nephew achieved transcended merely reaching the pinnacle, instead staying there for two decades and breaking numerous records in the process.
Now, with Carlos Alcaraz poised to follow in his footsteps, the emergence of his recent Netflix documentary has left Toni worried about his future.
After all, the great dilemma came between the young player and his coaching team, with the latter wanting him to sacrifice everything in the pursuit of greatness.
This is something the 22-year-old seems unwilling to do just yet, leading Toni to offer him some advice.
Toni Nadal reacts to Carlos Alcaraz’s Netflix documentary
Speaking to Nude Project in front of a live audience, they brought up the topic of sacrifice in relation to Alcaraz’s documentary.
Toni responded: ‘No, if it bothers him, then he should quit tennis. What do you want me to say? In the end, in the world of sport, there’s a tendency to exaggerate everything. I’ve heard talk many times about the sacrifice of sport, the sacrifice. One day I was at the Santiago Bernabeu and they told me about the sacrifice that the athletes make, the Real Madrid players.
‘During my son was doing studies in Barcelona all year and you say “Well, the thing is that if you want to get a degree that isn’t in Mallorca, well you know you have to pay a price.” Because life is always about giving up, it’s not just about doing what I want. You have to resign.
‘There are times when it pays off for people and sometimes it doesn’t. If it doesn’t pay off for you then you better change jobs. I hope Alcaraz doesn’t change it, obviously, because he’s one of the best in the world.
‘But one has to accept, the challenge is to accept that what one is doing in life is going to involve a series of sacrifices. When you do it for yourself, that’s the price you have to pay.
He then sought to put Alcaraz’s life into perspective, continuing: ‘What I know is that in the end Alcaraz, being a great tennis player, well it’s true that he pays a price for having to go to Australia maybe at Christmas, the same as Rafael did, but on the other hand he earns much more money than the vast majority of young people his age. He also has much greater social recognition. Live experiences that few people experience.
‘You weigh it up. Is it worth it or not? If it doesn’t compensate you then it’s better to make another decision. In the end, it pays off.’
This is not the only issue that the Spaniard apparently has, with Paul Annacone claiming that Alcaraz is suffering from the same problem Roger Federer had too.
Toni Nadal says if he thinks Rafael Nadal was happy playing tennis
Then asked a rather hard-hitting question in relation to Alcaraz’s issues, they wondered whether Rafael was truly happy throughout all his years competing at the apex of the sport.
After all, he gave himself completely to tennis, ruining his body at times in the process.
Toni seemed almost offended by that notion, though, as he responded: ‘Do I think that Rafael wasn’t happy when he played tennis? Damn, Rafael was happy when he played tennis years ago.
‘We were playing in the junior European Champions, children’s, we were in Ore, a city in France, and I remember that we were waiting to go out to play and he and I were playing on one of these little machines. Pinball. At one point, Rafael looked up and there was a clock and it said 12, and I remember he said “Wow, now my friends are in math class and here I am playing arcade games!”.
In the end, if you enjoy a career as successful as Nadal did, winning as often as he did, enjoyment is bound to be a prevalent emotion even if it felt like a grind at the time.’
