Marcelo Rios was great player but had no personality, says Toni Nadal
In an interview to La Tercera, Rafael Nadal's uncle Toni commented on two of the greatest Chile's players, Marcelo Rios and Fernando Gonzalez.
"Rios did not have personality. Let's not lie... On the court, a great player. Off it, a difficult character. If we speak of tennis, you have to say he was a great player. He has a great ability and a developed conception of tennis, a high one. And at the end of his career, I saw people who with much less tennis than him started winning titles and raising on the rankings and also beating him, which may have left him disappointed. But Chile has more than Rios."
On Fernando Gonzalez, Toni added: "I have memories from very good matches of Rafa against Gonzalez. Some of them were won by us, some of them by him. Seeing him winning those gold medals was a surprise for the world. On the paper, you had higher ranked players. Massu and Gonzalez won because they had a bigger Heart. And then I remember the gold medal final between Gonzalez and Rafael in 2008. It was very tough. I was very nervous, we knew he was a very complicated opponent. Back in the day, Gonzalez was one of the best guys on Tour and it was not easy to beat him. In the end, Rafael won in three sets, 6-3, 7-6 6-3. It was a very hard and long match, like all the ones we played against Fernando Gonzalez, in terms of intensity. I remember Rafa told me that this final was one of the most important ones in his career. He had not won the Olympic Games yet, that's why."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2IviJlF
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