{"id":12302,"date":"2025-07-15T19:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/12302\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T19:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:00:03","slug":"what-rafael-nadal-said-about-alexander-zverev-in-2017-after-australian-open-thriller-as-toni-nadal-becomes-coach-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/12302\/","title":{"rendered":"What Rafael Nadal said about Alexander Zverev in 2017 after Australian Open thriller as Toni Nadal becomes coach option"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alexander Zverev could be set for a big change in his career, with Toni Nadal potentially becoming his new coach.<\/p>\n

Zverev has trained with Nadal<\/a>, who famously coached his nephew Rafael Nadal<\/a> for the majority of his career.<\/p>\n

Nadal won 16 of his 22 Grand Slam titles under the guidance of his uncle Toni Nadal<\/a>, who stepped aside from his duties with the player in 2017.<\/p>\n

That same year, Nadal met a 19-year-old Zverev<\/a> at the Australian Open<\/a>, winning their third round thriller after five sets.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard was pushed all the way by the young German, but eventually triumphed 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(5-7), 6-3, 6-2.<\/p>\n

\"OlympicsPhoto by Clive Brunskill\/Getty ImagesWhat Rafael Nadal said about Alexander Zverev after 2017 Australian Open thriller<\/p>\n

Nadal went on to lose the 2017 Australian Open final to Roger Federer after knocking out Zverev, who he praised after their encounter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the future of our sport and the present too,\u201d the Spaniard said of the German. \u201cIt was a tough match for me, I was not playing my best and not feeling well because I was losing too much court.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Rafael Nadal sends message to both Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz after their Wimbledon final finishes<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThen I changed the dynamic in the third, I was feeling better and I had more time to control the points from the baseline. After losing the tie-break I said, \u2018I need to fight for every point. Forget the result\u2019. And that\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since that meeting, Zverev has managed to reach number two in the ATP Tour<\/a> rankings, as well as losing three Grand Slam finals.<\/p>\n

ResultYearTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss2020US OpenHardDominic Thiem6\u20132, 6\u20134, 4\u20136, 3\u20136, 6\u20137(6\u20138)Loss2024French OpenClayCarlos Alcaraz3\u20136, 6\u20132, 7\u20135, 1\u20136, 2\u20136Loss2025Australian OpenHardJannik Sinner3\u20136, 6\u20137(4\u20137), 3\u20136Alexander Zverev Grand Slam finalsHow close Alexander Zverev thought he was to the elite players in 2017<\/p>\n

This year, Zverev was a major Wimbledon disappointment<\/a>, which was a real surprise given his impressive run on grass in the build-up.<\/p>\n

The German entered the Grand Slam after reaching the final and semifinals in Stuttgart and Halle respectively.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Multiple Grand Slam winner left \u2018bemused\u2019 by what Alexander Zverev did in his shock first round exit at Wimbledon<\/a><\/p>\n

But a shock first round upset followed at Wimbledon, with Zverev losing 6-7(3-7), 7-6(10-8), 3-6, 7-6(7-5), 4-6 to Arthur Rinderknech.<\/p>\n

It was a very different performance from that of his four-hour tie with Nadal at Rod Laver Arena back in 2017.<\/p>\n

Speaking after that memorable tie, when he was ranked 24th in the world, Zverev discussed just how close he thought he was to the elite.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI am close. I kind of showed it a few times last year, and this now. Even now I\u2019m disappointed but I know that this was a great match. That was a great fight. There\u2019s a lot of positives in this match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s probably one of the fittest tennis players in the history of the game. Obviously I wanted to win. I could have won. It\u2019s disappointing. But I\u2019m fine actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zverev is currently ranked third in the world behind Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, but is out of action this week after deciding to withdraw from the Swiss Open in Gstaad.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev could be set for a big change in his career, with Toni Nadal potentially becoming his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[12082,430,12083,813,99,428,12084],"class_list":["post-12302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-atp","tag-australian-open","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-toni-nadal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}