Toni Nadal has spotted a major change in tennis recently that he really doesn’t like

Toni Nadal is often one of the most outspoken pundits in tennis and he’s questioned the level of the current top 10 of the ATP Tour.

The Spanish coach knows a thing or two about the elite of the ATP Tour, having coached his nephew Rafael Nadal for much of his incredible career.

Nadal has often been full of praise for Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, but he believes the chasing pack are not currently fulfilling their potential.

In an interview with ESPN, he said the current stars below Alcaraz and Sinner are very beatable, unlike previous generations of top-ranked players.

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“Before, it was a pleasure to watch other men play, like [Andy] Murray, [Tomas] Berdych, [David] Ferrer, [Juan Martin] Del Potro,” said Nadal in an interview with ESPN.

“They never lost to anyone below them,” he explained. “Now you can see a top-10 player losing to the world number 90, and I don’t like that.”

While Nadal’s words do seem a bit harsh, he absolutely has a point when it comes to some of the players currently trying to push Alcaraz and Sinner.

Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is currently ranked World No 4, has already lost to World No 76 Kamil Majchrzak and World No 94 Aleksandar Kovacevic this year.

World No 5 Ben Shelton, meanwhile, has lost to World No 117 Nikolaz Basilashvili, World No 87 Dino Prizmic, World No 83 Thiago Tirante, and World No 84 Alexander Shevchenko already this year.

Alex de Minaur has suffered four defeats to players ranked outside the top 70, while Taylor Fritz has been beaten by two players ranked outside the top 80.

These are results that would have been incredibly rare in the generation Nadal is talking about, with the likes of Murray and Berdych showing a real level of consistency.

While the likes of Auger-Aliassime, Fritz, de Minaur, and Shelton can all challenge the very best on their best day, we do not see that often enough for them to become Grand Slam champions at present.

Roland Garros was a very good example of that. While several top seeds, including Sinner and Djokovic, fell by the wayside, many of the top 10 were not able to capitalise.

De Minaur, Fritz, and Shelton were all beaten in the first week, while Auger-Aliassime fell to eventual finalist Flavio Cobolli in the quarter-finals.

None of them would truly call clay their favourite surface, however, so Wimbledon will be another chance for the chasing pack to try and establish themselves at the very top.

With Sinner and Djokovic out-of-action for nearly a month, and Alcaraz withdrawing from the event, they will be hoping they can claim the first Grand Slam title of their careers.

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