Toni Nadal warns Rafa: Tsitsipas has made huge improvements'

On a column for El Pais the Rafael Nadals uncle Toni previewed the upcoming Australian Open semifinals match between the 32-year-old and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Toni wrote: Many fans discovered Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final he played against Rafael at last years Conde de God.

At the time the Greek suffered a pretty tough loss, but when they faced each other again in Toronto a few months after the improvement he had made was a proof of the player that will step in the first places in just some time.

The ability to improve is, for me, one of the key factors when it comes to determine the quality of a tennis player, and of any person in any environment. I think that the ability to keep learning and adapting yourself is the true talent of the biggest players.

And it seems Stefanos is showing he is one of them. His tennis evolved over the tournament. He went through close matches against very tough players, especially the last two ones against Roberto Bautista and Roger Federer. In the last case, its true that the Swiss had some bad luck in not converting any of the 12 break points he had, but its also Stefanos who managed to deal with pressure in the most complicated moments of the match being calm and especially being able to give an extra to beat his opponent.