When television cameras pan to Felix Auger-Aliassime’s coaching staff during his matches at the 2021 US Open, they tend to focus on Toni Nadal, the newest addition. Naturally.
Nadal, the legendary coach of 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, joined Auger-Aliassime’s team in April to much fanfare, and in the ensuing monthsーnot surprisinglyーthe Canadian has experienced multiple breakouts on the Grand Slam stage.
The 21-year-old reached his first major quarterfinal at Wimbledon before falling to eventual runner-up Matteo Berrettini. Two months later, the Canadian is riding high in New York, proving that the deep run was no fluke. He’s into the semifinals at the US Open, and will face Daniil Medvedev on Friday for a shot to play in his first Grand Slam final in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Watch: Auger-Aliassime vs. Medvedev, SF Preview
Auger-Aliassime, who spends training blocks at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, Spain, together with his longtime coach Frédéric Fontang, wanted Nadal to join the team not only for his coaching prowess. Team FAA also saw in Nadal values that synced neatly with the long-term vision of the team.
Fontang, who Auger-Aliassime refers to as “the captain,” sees himself as the guardian of the process, and in Toni Nadal he saw an asset that could bring a treasure trove of experience, and the aforementioned intangibles that the team has always sought to embody.
“All the team, we are the guardians of the process, and we have Toni Nadal with us, because he's somebody we were looking for last year at the end of the year,” Fontang told USOpen.org in a phone interview on Wednesday. “We wanted Felix to have somebody who, first of all, has good human values and of course, second, experience to have been on those high summits. For us, he's like a performance consultant, and he is bringing exactly what we needed."
Nadal’s presence in Auger-Aliassime’s box claims the lion’s share of headlines, but Auger-Aliassime stresses that Fontang’s leadership role has not been diminished with Uncle Toni in the mix.
“Fred knows me like a son, for sure,” he says. “We have been working together for four full years, since 2017. I think he's one of the big reasons why I am where I am today. He’s been able to really shape my game in a good way, work technically to improve every aspect of my game and really connecting with how I want to play in the future going forward. He really has a long-term vision.”
That long-term vision has been a constant talking point with Auger-Aliassime. Yes, reaching a maiden Grand Slam semifinal is a massive breakthrough, but more important than any single result is maintaining the steady drumbeat of progress over time. In tennis, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
That’s where Toni Nadal comes in. Think of the Spaniard, now 60, as another layer that helps give form to the constant, meticulous growth of the 21-year-old.
"It's like everything in life,” Fontang, a former ATP World No. 59, says. “You still need to improve. You still need to exchange with people who made it and who align with what your goals are.”
Fontang says that Nadal isn’t only helping Auger-Aliassime improve his tennis, he’s also helping him expand his own horizons as a coach.
“Toni, he is good external eyes for Felix, of course, but also for me,” he says. “We exchange a lot. As I said, it was important that first of all it's a person that has good values. We know that with Rafa, and all the Nadal family, they are people with good values, so this is really important. Then, after we discuss tennis, we exchange our experience and we have a good alchemy."
World No.15 Auger-Aliassime, who has lost all eight ATP finals he has played, admits he has become frustrated at times with his overall progress. But in those dark times, he leans on patience to trigger the next step.
“I've gotten impatient sometimes this year, last year,” he said on Tuesday after reaching the semifinals. “I had losses that I was disappointed with, either in Grand Slams or in Masters. I think I just learned to accept them, to keep my self-belief high, to keep working well, and things would come. Have the belief that things would come, and you never know exactly when, at some point, things would click and I would get a great result.”
One might wonder: what exactly is different about Auger-Aliassime’s game today, compared to 2018? When the question is put to Fontang, he answers frankly: not much, but also everything.
"I cannot say that he improved in something specific," Fontang says. "In general, he's like a better person, in maturity and experience, of course his game is still the sameーvery aggressiveーhe's a better tennis player in general, but I won't say that it's something specific, he really improved in all the areas, all the pieces of the puzzle that make you a tennis player."
One thing that has changed since Nadal came on board in April? A new layer of self-belief has been added.
"I will say that the point is the confidence. This extra force, this extra belief,” says Fontang, who uses a personal example to illustrate his point. “I'm doing a lot of training because I'm living in the southwest of France in the Pyrénées, and when I want to go on a trail that I don't know and, if it's a bit difficult, of course you take a guide. You go with somebody who already made the wayーit's a bit like that with Toni."
With top-notch coaching talent to guide him, Auger-Aliassime is approaching his newfound success in stride. The pieces are in place to make this New York run a starting point rather than a destination.
“It's been good to work with him,” Auger-Aliassime says of his time with Nadal. “He's bringing a lot of instant feedback, always pushing to do things a little bit better, but also telling me when things are good, when they're in the right direction.
“It's been great work. Every time I try to bring a lot of focus, intensity into the practices. I think it's paying off well.”
