Rafael Nadal has insisted he has no intention of following the recent trend of a number of top players by changing his coaching setup, making it clear he will be sticking with his uncle Toni, whose time working with his nephew has yielded 13 Grand Slam titles. While Nadal’s main rival according to Betfair this year, Novak Djokovic, recently hired Boris Becker, in just one of a number of coaching changes made ahead of the 2014 season.
Djokovic’s decision to hire Becker came following a host of former Grand Slam winners from yesteryear to be handed important coaching roles over the winter. While Roger Federer has linked up with Stefan Edberg in a bid to amend his slide and get the Swiss star back up the Betfair odds, Richard Gasquet has taken on Sergi Bruguera, Marin Cilic has renewed his partnership with Goran Ivanisevic, and Kei Nishikori has acquired the services of Michael Chang.
A change of coach helped turned Andy Murray from an almost man to a two-time Grand Slam winner, winning the 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon titles following his link up with Ivan Lendl. And while there is no doubt Murray’s decision has paid off, Nadal has made it clear he won’t be following suit, sticking with his coaching setup heading into a 2014 in which the Spaniard will be looking at holding onto his number-one spot, something you can bet on with Betfair.
“I will stick to my team. I always feel when I play bad, it is my fault and when I’m winning I’m doing the right things. I had success in my career with the same team. I had good and worst moments with the same team. I understand if anything goes wrong, nobody is responsible more than me.”
Nadal will head into the first Grand Slam of the year as a narrow second favourite behind four-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic for the title in Melbourne, although the current world number one won’t be being written off by many.
This article was submitted by Betfair and was not written by TennisReporters.net writers.
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