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Nadal to apply 'prudence' to his schedule

Toni Nadal has guided his nephew to seven Grand Slam titles © Getty Images

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Rafael Nadal will have to be more careful in his schedule in order to avoid injury, his coach and uncle Toni Nadal has said.

A year ago, Nadal suffered his first defeat at Roland Garros, losing in the fourth round to Robin Soderling, and the world No. 1 struggled for the remainder of the 2009 season with knee injuries. But 12 months after his last title, Nadal has now claimed three on the bounce, becoming the first man to win all three Masters clay-court titles in a single season.

The world No. 2 is on course to win his sixth French Open crown, but Toni believes an intelligent approach to planning his nephew's calendar could be the best way to avoid injury.

"We must take care with the calendar and maybe it is better to prepare with prudence, so we shall stop more," Toni said. "We want to play a lot more years but we cannot play too hard all the years."

With Rafael having burst to the top of his game at such a young age, Toni is in a constant battle to maintain the momentum and fend off the challenges of new youngsters breaking into the top ten. He admits that Rafael has had to adapt his game to prevent burnout, but on the whole he sees it as minor tweaks rather than drastic changes.

"When you see the Rafael of three, four years ago, he did a lot more running than he does now. His game is not as physical as it was before. This is what we have to accept.

"I don't think about changing, I think about improving. Rafael's serve is a little better, it is not as good as [Ernests] Gulbis but it is better, his volley is a little better, his drive forehand is good and backhand better.

"I don't want to say the names but good players, who have been at the top, they have gone down. It is the same because every year there are better ones coming, new ones, like Gulbis, [Marin] Cilic. [Andy] Murray arrived two years before, [Novak] Djokovic three years before.

"Rafael came to the top very young, which was good for us, but at the same time it is a problem because he was very high at 19-20 and you must get better because when you don't improve, the new ones will make you bad and I know he can do all the things better. We are in this process."

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