Toni Nadal: "Years ago, top players were better than now. They were more competitive." "Nadal would definitely beat Medvedev, Murray b. Zverev, Wawrinka b. Ruud, del Potro b. Rublev and Ferrer b. Rune. And Djokovic is a worse player than 5-10 years ago." 😢 (via El Pais)
Toni Nadal: "Years ago, top players were better", roasts Medvedev, Ruud, Rune and more
ATPWednesday, 06 September 2023 at 06:56
Toni Nadal has roasted several active top-ranked ATP players, claiming that the best players of days gone by were 'more competitive' than those of today.
Toni, who was the longtime coach of his tennis-legend nephew Rafael Nadal, has criticized top players Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, and Holger Rune, saying that older tennis stars who dominated the ATP Rankings years ago such as Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael could easily have beaten the aforementioned players when they themselves were at their peak.
Writing for the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais, Toni backed up his argument with the example of 'the premature elimination of many seeds' at the ATP 1000 National Bank Canadian Open, which took place a few weeks ago.
In this competition, four of the seeded players were ousted in the Round of 64, including tenth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who Toni coaches. Then, in the Round of 32, which for many of the most highly ranked players was their first round, 4th seed Stefanos Tsistipas, fifth seed Rune, sixth seed Rublev, and 13th seed Zverev were all defeated.
The same mass elimination seemed to occur again in the next round, with 3rd seed Ruud and eighth seed Taylor Fritz among those who crashed out.
Toni calls out newer players as well as Djokovic
In his article Toni wrote:
"Years ago, top players were better than now. They were more competitive.
"Nadal would definitely beat Medvedev, Murray beat Zverev, Wawrinka beat Ruud, del Potro beat Rublev and Ferrer beat Rune."
The Spaniard also added that he thought 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic was also not as good as he was a few years back when he still had the challenge of fellow Big Three members Rafael and Roger Federer.
"And Djokovic is a worse player than 5-10 years ago," he wrote.
This is despite the fact that the Serb has won 2 out of 3 Grand Slams completed so far this year, perhaps suggesting that Toni doesn't think the 36-year-old needs to play as well as he once did to win.
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