By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Photo credit: Rafa Nadal Academy
Tennis has been called boxing without violence.
Toni Nadal says there’s a simple fix to transform tennis’ brutality to true beauty—and it doesn’t require shrinking the schedule, changing the balls or reconfiguring surfaces.
Toni Nadal, uncle and original coach of Rafa Nadal, advocates the ATP reduce the size of tennis racquets in a move he asserts will diminish pure brutal power while promoting skill, subtlety and shot variety.
In a new interview with La Gazzetta Dello Sport’s Federica Cocchi, Toni Nadal says shrinking racquet size will enhance the beauty of shotmaking and rallies.
“I would propose playing with smaller rackets,” Toni Nadal told La Gazzetta Dello Sport’s Federica Cocchi. “It would be easier for amateurs and more difficult for professionals, and the game would be less violent. The beauty of tennis is being able to see the gesture.
“When McEnroe or Nastase played, everything was there: gesture, hand, tactics. Tennis is the only sport that begins with a ‘penalty kick’: if you serve well, the opponent doesn’t play… In other disciplines they have changed the rules to increase the spectacle.”
Toni Nadal says the punishing calendar is not the primary problem tennis faces. Rather, he views the ferocious pace of play emanating from rocket-launcher racquets and polyester strings, for turning tennis into a sport of “violence” where players are more vulnerable to injury.
“It’s not a question of calendar. Now many will disagree, but the real problem is that the ball always goes too fast,” Toni Nadal said. “It is not a question of quantity, but of intensity and violence of the gesture.
“There are almost no “tactical” players like [Guillermo] Coria or [Gaston] Gaudio anymore, who tried to build. Today it is often just a race to see who hits hardest. And when you make such quick gestures, when you get to a ball at full speed, brake and start again, it’s easy for the body to go to the limit and get hurt. I think we should try to slow down the game a bit.”
Toni Nadal isn’t the first prominent tennis player or coach to suggest downsizing racquets. Hall of Famer John McEnroe told Tennis Now years back, he would limit racquet size and proposed playing a tournament featuring only wood racquets to see how today’s elite players would fare.
“Imagine if you gave major league baseball players aluminum bats like they use in college,” McEnroe told Tennis Now. “Someone could get killed by a line drive if major league baseball players used aluminum bats. The racquets in today’s tennis are too powerful and it impacts the game.”
Asked if he subscribes to the popular theory that Sinner’s game is Djokovic 2.0, Toni Nadal disagreed saying he believes the Grand Slam king is more complete than the reigning Wimbledon winner.
“I think Djokovic is a bit more complete. Sinner has more speed in his shots, Nole a little more touch,” Toni Nadal said. “They have in common the fact that they always impose a high pace and have exceptional ball control, with very high level movements. Jannik plays with a very defined scheme: he imposes a very fast pace from the beginning, difficult for anyone to hold.”
