Conor Niland on Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal’s sporting legacy will be cast in gold forever more, but one former player suggests there was one area where he could have made his presence felt.
Nadal is calling time on his record-breaking career at the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga, with Ireland Davis Cup captain Conor Niland telling Tennis365 that the Spaniard deserves all the plaudits that will come his way.
Yet he suggests the retiring legend may have done even more for tennis if he had spoken up for the game’s lower-ranked players, as they were fighting to earn more prize money to fund their careers.
Nadal’s great rival Novak Djokovic has been a champion of lower-ranked players and has called for tennis chiefs to provide more money for players lower down the tennis ladder.
Former world No 129 Niland, who wrote an acclaimed book on the struggles of life in the lower ranks of the tennis tour that won the 2024 William Hill Sports Book Of The Year Award, has suggested Djokovic’s passion to use his influence to change the sport for players not as fortunate as himself is a quality that was appreciated.
“I would have liked to have seen Nadal speak out a little bit more for some of the guys ranked between 100 and 300 players,” said Niland. “Sometimes I felt with Rafa that if you were not at the top of the game he wasn’t interested.
“By contrast, Djokovic has spoken up for players who are struggling to make their way on the tour financially, but Federer and Nadal haven’t really done that.
“Djokovic seems to understand that it’s lopsided and it needs a bit of work, so he deserves some credit for that, but he has divided opinion a lot more.
“At times, people didn’t like him even when he was doing nothing wrong as he was disrupting the Federer and Nadal rivalry.
“Then it was the vaccine issue, the chaos in Australia when he was deported and at a time when everyone was really divided, he stoked the fire a little at that time.”
Niland went on to suggest Nadal and his great rivals Roger Federer and Djokovic will also be seen as part of the same story, as their rivalry captivated the sporting world.
“I see them as a trio and I don’t think Djokovic could have done what he did without Federer and Nadal leading him off,” said Niland, who played Djokovic in the 2011 US Open on Arthur Ashe Stadium court.
“Nadal is one of the greatest sportsmen of the last 100 years, I would say, and certainly one of the most inspiring.
“He has been involved in some of the greatest matches ever played and we always look at the 2008 match against Federer as the greatest of all-time.
“But there were also some incredible matches like the epic against Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open in 2009 and so many more amazing moments.
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“He is right up there with one of the great tennis players of all-time and also one of the great sportsmen.
“He’s always been on the right side of things and his behaviour on court has always been exemplary. The example he has set has been ridiculously good and tennis will miss him.
“There has been the odd time violation and getting a bit annoyed with umpires, but all pretty minor stuff.”
Niland’s acclaimed book looked at the struggles of players ranked outside the elite in the game and he suggests Nadal and Federer could have done more to fight for lower-ranked players to have the potential to earn more money in the sport.
“I would have liked to have seen Nadal speak out a little bit more for some of the guys ranked between 100 and 300 players,” said Niland. “Sometimes I felt with Rafa that if you were not at the top of the game he wasn’t interested.
“By contrast, Djokovic has spoken up for players who are struggling to make their way on the tour financially, but Federer and Nadal haven’t really done that.
“Djokovic seems to understand that it’s lopsided and it needs a bit of work, so he deserves some credit for that, but he has divided opinion a lot more.
“At times, people didn’t like him even when he was doing nothing wrong as he was disrupting the Federer and Nadal rivalry.
“Then it was the vaccine issue, the chaos in Australia when he was deported and at a time when everyone was really divided, he stoked the fire a little at that time.”
Niland’s autobiography has proved to be a huge hit after its was released earlier this year, as the former player who reached a career-high ranking of No.129 captured the imagination of fans outside of tennis with his compelling account of life on the tour.
“I knew it was a good book, I knew it would be well received by people who like tennis,” he added. ”
“What I didn’t know is whether people who didn’t follow our sport would get something out of it. As it turns out, a lot of the most enthusiastic comments have come from people who were brought into the tennis world through this book.
“Those of us involved in tennis know it inside out and how it all works, but people who are involved in tennis got something out of that world being revealed to them.”
Niland’s success in winning the 2024 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award was a remarkable achievement as a sparkling endorsement of a tennis story that has rarley been told.
“I accept this award with a lot of humility. The other shortlisted books are incredible stories so I feel very fortunate to have won and so grateful,” said Niland.
“This is all pretty improbable. My brother told me I would win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award when he read this last Christmas, I took that with a pretty large pinch of salt, but he was right. It’s amazing.
“The pro tennis tour is a little bit of a misunderstood sport, we were able to show what the world is really like, for the guys a little bit further down the rankings.”
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