French Open crowd didn't behave well in Rafael Nadal's 2009 loss - Toni
In a conference call, Rafael Nadal's uncle Toni reflected on how winning or losing makes the crowd have a different perspective towards the player in sports. The 58-year-old recalled when Nadal lost to Robin Soderling in a 2009 French Open fourth round match. "The French crowd was pretty bad educated", Toni recognized. "Years after I saw the biggest ovation on a tennis court that I ever was into. People appreciate the effort, fairness. You have to try to win in the correct way. I red Cantona saying that for Sir Alex Ferguson, winning was not the most important thing but the only thing that mattered. I think that's a mistake. You have to try to win without cheating, giving your best. If you lose, being able to accept the loss in a normal way."
For Toni, being a good person is the key: "In Milan, in a conference, I started speaking after that someone said that if you asked a father to choose between having an educated son or a son who wins the French Open, he would pick the one who wins French Open. And I told him it was a false, wrong question. It's much easier to win the French Open being well educated than being bad educated."
Speaking about his Academy, Rafael Nadal often says that the kids who go there can have a more organized life than how he had when he was a kid. In an interview, his uncle Toni recalled Nadal's busy childhood. "Rafa studied less, he attended the normal course until 14 years."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2VG6Nnu
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