{"id":535947,"date":"2026-04-17T12:32:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/535947\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:32:20","slug":"rafael-nadal-true-colours-as-a-coach-revealed-as-strict-claim-made-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/535947\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Nadal true colours as a coach revealed as ‘strict’ claim made | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iga Swiatek has revealed what Rafael Nadal was like during an encounter at the Rafa Nadal<\/a> Academy in Mallorca, where the 24\u2011year\u2011old spent time practising.<\/p>\n

The world No 4 split with her long\u2011time mentor after an early exit in Miami and brought in Francisco Roig, who previously worked with Nadal and Emma Raducanu<\/a>. Swiatek and Roig completed their first pre\u2011clay\u2011swing training block together at the Academy, where Nadal was spotted on court with them<\/a> – fully involved and offering the Polish star plenty of guidance.<\/p>\n

It was a special moment for Swiatek, a self\u2011confessed Nadal fan, who opened up about what the experience was like. “I feel like the dynamics were kind of unusual, because Francisco was his coach obviously,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I feel he also let him coach me. But from time to time he was giving his tips. I\u2019d say pretty chill?<\/p>\n

When asked whether he had shouted at him at all, Swiatek replied: “No but he was motivating in a positive way. I\u2019d say chill but on the other hand strict.<\/p>\n

“Honestly it\u2019s Rafa. No matter what he\u2019s gonna say, you\u2019re gonna do it 100 per cent. You know his intensity. Having him on the court you want to show him the same kind of vibe. Just him being there obviously did the job.”<\/p>\n

Swiatek also admitted she had long planned to visit Nadal\u2019s academy, even before parting ways with former coach<\/a> Wim Fissette and teaming up with Roig. “My idea of coming to the academy appeared, like, two months ago,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to change something in my preparation before clay, because obviously last clay season didn’t really go out how I planned. I wanted to go to Mallorca because I knew the facilities there, I knew the court.<\/p>\n

“I knew I was going to do solid work there without any other distractions. I asked if it would be possible for him to come and maybe be some kind of inspiration, also hear some feedback from him.<\/p>\n

“It was really a privilege to have him on the court. I honestly didn’t have many expectations because I know he’s super busy and he has a lot of stuff to do, even though he always has different projects and everything. It’s a real privilege. I was really honoured he was able to be there these couple of days.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek has revealed what Rafael Nadal was like during an encounter at the Rafa Nadal Academy in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[185195,810,11636,6767,101,118,12700,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-535947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-coaching-style","9":"tag-iga-swiatek","10":"tag-motivation","11":"tag-rafael-nadal","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-tennis-section","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}