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Uncle Toni: I'd Coach Djokovic


Imagine a future where a Nadal yells "Vamos Novak!" from the coaching box.

Uncle Toni Nadal can envision it.

Watch: Will Djokovic Reunion Spark Restoration?

Toni Nadal, uncle and original coach of Rafael Nadal, says he'd welcome the chance to coach Novak Djokovic.

While the elder Nadal conceded "it will not happen," he also confirmed he would coach Djokovic if asked.

“It will not happen,” Toni Nadal told Spanish publication La Vanguardia. "It would be difficult to say no to Djokovic: he is a No. 1."

The 12-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic reunited with his former coach Marian Vajda for clay season.

Toni Nadal, who stepped down as Rafael Nadal's full-time traveling coach at the end of last season, is head coach at the Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy in his native Manacor.

While Uncle Toni said he would not want to travel full-time with Djokovic, he would jump at the chance to coach the Serbian rival of his nephew.

I wouldn’t go to the limit as with my nephew, but I would be delighted to accompany him to a tournament," Toni Nadal told La Vanguardia. "Training Djokovic would be like training Barca or Madrid."

Prior to stepping down as his nephew's head coach last season, Toni Nadal said his relations with Rafa are good though he conceded his influence diminished over the years.

"Relations with my nephew are still excellent. During all these years, we have never been through a crisis. Until he was 17 years old, it was me who decided everything. Then Carlos Costa arrived as manager. Then his father became closer, each having his opinions,” Toni Nadal said. "And the truth is that every year I had less decision-making, until the day when I will decide on nothing."


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