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Spanish tennis player and World No 2 Rafael Nadal has hinted that he may call time on his association with his coach and uncle Toni Nadal.
Rafael was beaten by World No 1 Novak Djokovic in the US Open final last Sunday and is said to be anxiously contemplating a life-changing decision.
"You never know what is in the future. The time has now come when I can say more to him than I have done previously. I'm not kidding when I say that from now on I will answer him back because I have more opinions than I had before," the Daily Express quoted Nadal, as saying.
"If other people outside my family said to me what he says, then it would be very difficult to keep working together. Also he has three kids, and sometimes he gets tired of travelling. So, far I've been happy with how I've played this year, but not with my matches against Djokovic. He's my motivation to play better," he added.
Toni had introduced tennis to Nadal at the age of four.
Nadal also played football and could have gone professional, but when Rafael was 12-years-old, Toni told him that he would achieve greater success in tennis, and from then on Toni became Nadal's tennis coach, mentor, support system, strategist, and emotional anchor.
Toni had trained Nadal on poor courts with bad tennis balls, just to teach him that winning or losing isn't about the quality of courts, strings, lights or balls, but that it is about attitude, discipline, and perspective.