Rafael Nadal's uncle Toni - his former coach - remained tight-lipped on the future of the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
The Spaniard is currently recovering from a hip injury that derailed his chances of winning the recently concluded Australian Open. The 36-year-old reached the second round at Melbourne Park, but the hip problem saw him succumb to a straight sets defeat.
Nadal is expected to miss around eight weeks of action and, as of writing, it has not been confirmed whether or not he will play March's US Masters 1000 double of Indian Wells and the Miami Open. Should he miss these events, the former world number one hopes to return in time for the start of the all-important clay court season, but concerns around his future in the game remain unclear.
In his latest column with Vanity Fair Espana, Nadal's uncle Toni said little to ease those concerns. “When one has been there for so many years, as is the case with him, and after having had so many problems in the last year, where he ended up too injured, I don’t consider the future beyond the next tournament,” he said.
“You never really know how things are going to go. It is true that Rafael has a very punished body, but it is also true that he has been on the professional circuit since he was 16 years old and that is something you pay for. There are many years hitting the ball and moving at high intensity. When you have that, it is easy for the body to fail here today and there tomorrow. I trust that he can lift the Roland-Garros trophy this year, and then we’ll see.”
In a comment for French outlet El Pais, Uncle Toni commented on the tantalising rivalry between his nephew and Novak Djokovic and the 35-year-old's greatest qualities. Following the Serbian’s latest Australian Open victory, he tied Nadal’s Grand Slam record.
It is likely the pair will battle for a 23rd major at the French Open later this year and Djokovic is desperate to claim the Grand Slam record outright in an attempt to be known as the undisputed greatest tennis player of all time. For Uncle Toni, who now coaches rising Canadian star Felix Auger-Aliassime, the result in Melbourne was a demonstration, not only of Djokovic's "complete" game but also of the fact that he is a "fighter to the point of exhaustion" - just like his nephew.
“His game is undoubtedly the most complete on the circuit, which allows him to play both attacking and defending," Toni wrote. "He is decisive and a fighter to the point of exhaustion, and he responds with astonishing serenity in moments of maximum tension.
"He also has the ambition and the consequent desire to continue improving. Proof of this is his service, highly perfected in recent times. In the first set, the player from Athens [Tsitsipas] wanted to play Novak precisely, one on one, with fast and aggressive shots, constantly changing the directions of his shots. So it still seems almost impossible to beat him, unless you are Roger Federer.
“As much as we are already used to it, what the Serbian player has achieved is as amazing as it is admirable. That 15 years after that 2008 [edition of the Australian Open], in which he lifted his first major in Melbourne, he has done it again for the 10th time there, and with such an impressive tennis level, should astonish the people of the world of tennis."
