Their first heroes: A look at tennis’s most famous dads

5.) Toni Nadal (uncle):

While Toni Nadal is not Rafael Nadal’s biological father, he could well lay claim to that title. ‘Uncle Toni’, as he is popularly known, has coached his nephew Rafael since the age of 4. When Nadal had to make the decision to choose between tennis and football at the age of 12, it was Uncle Toni who advised him that he would achieve greater success in tennis, and from then on, has always been by his nephew’s side, taking on the many roles of his coach, mentor, support system, strategist and emotional anchor.

Toni instilled important qualities in Rafa from an early age, training him on both bad and good courts, with both good and bad tennis balls, in order to teach him that winning and losing did not depend on anything other than his own attitude, perseverance and belief. These qualities have stuck with Rafa and even today, he comes across as an extremely down-to-earth and level-headed person.

Nadal is unquestionably one of the game’s greats. He has won 12 Grand Slam titles, become the youngest man in history to win all 4 Grand Slams and has an Olympic gold to boot. Time and again, Nadal goes back to his first and only coach, Toni Nadal, when asked who his inspiration in life is, and rightly so. Toni Nadal has been there for Rafa for more than twenty years now and fully deserves every accolade he gets.