Rafael Nadal will make his first appearance since October this Thursday in Abu Dhabi at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship and tournament ambassador Pat Cash believes it could be the last time the UAE crowd gets a chance to watch the Spaniard live in action.
Nadal, the defending MWTC champion, ended his 2016 season early due to lingering wrist problems and will commence 2017 ranked No9 in the world.
His unofficial season kick-off comes this weekend at Zayed Sports City where he opens his campaign against Tomas Berdych on Thursday evening.
The 30-year-old Mallorcan joins Berdych, Andy Murray, Milos Raonic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and tournament debutant David Goffin in the three-day tennis extravaganza in Abu Dhabi and Cash feels half the field could be bidding farewell to the sport soon.
“I think people need to get out there and see some of these players out here this tournament because it may be the last time they get to see Berdych, Tsonga and Nadal play,” Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion, told Sport360.
“Murray will be around for a couple of years, but certainly the change in the guard is about to happen, and Murray is probably the last one of the original guard that is there with something to prove.
“It’s coming and these young guys will win a bunch of tournaments for sure. They won’t be in the same class as this group that’s on its way out, but it doesn’t matter, they’re going to be there.”
Following in the footsteps of his fellow ‘Big Four’ members, Nadal has added a former world No1 to his coaching team, his good friend and compatriot Carlos Moya, to work alongside his uncle Toni Nadal, and Francis Roig.
Murray has enjoyed tremendous success with the legendary Ivan Lendl, Novak Djokovic spent three years dominating under the tutelage of Boris Becker, while Roger Federer had two great seasons with Stefan Edberg before they parted ways last year.
#Christmas dinner with the team, family & friends! pic.twitter.com/Q7CvTDOR7c
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) December 21, 2016
Moya was part of Raonic’s coaching team in 2016 and played a big role in the Canadian’s rise from No14 at the start of the season to his current position at No3, thanks to a strong year that saw him reach the Wimbledon final.
Many see Nadal and Moya as a perfect fit but Cash believes the 14-time major champion’s problems are beyond simply hiring a new coach and fellow Mallorcan.
“For Rafa it’s about rebuilding his confidence. Last year we saw him just losing his confidence under pressure.
He said it a couple of years ago and it was more obvious this year. At some stage when we get older you just lose your concentration, you lose the ability to handle the stress all the time, day-in, day-out, and Rafa is showing signs of that,” said Cash.
“Carlos is a sharp guy. I just tend to think that some of Rafa’s issues are technical and I’m not sure they’ve picked that up.
“Spaniards typically tend to be quite traditional in tennis coaching, a bit like their tennis academies, hit lots of balls, get lots of confidence, that sort of thing. I’m not sure Carlos is down that path, but still I think Rafa really needs take a good look at himself under the computer and get a specialist to see where he can improve his serve.
“In my opinion he needs to technically fix a couple of things in his game, he needs to get some free points, he needs to get consistency with his depth on his forehand and backhand and he just hasn’t had it the last couple of years – he’s never really had it.
“When he’s in good form his depth is unbelievably good and when he’s not in good form it’s really poor and the guys are taking advantage of that now.
“The problem is the last couple of years he’s never really got his confidence back on that depth. That’s his number one thing. He needs to be able to push his opponents back and then finish the point off. You can’t push them back if the ball is just dropping in the middle of the court. So that’s the number one thing for me. And his serve, he needs to fix that up a little bit.”
Having parted ways with Moya, Raonic has brought in 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek to his team, to work alongside Riccardo Piatti. Despite dealing with some injuries, Raonic had a breakthrough 2016 that saw him attack the net more and more.
“Five per cent or 10 per cent better and he might walk away with a grand slam this year,” Cash said of Raonic.
