“I have to say that I was wrong,” Rafael Nadal admits his mistake and apologizes to Lorenzo Sonego for wrongfully ‘lecturing’ him at the net
Rafael Nadal and Lorenzo Sonego
22-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal continued his unbeaten streak in grand slam tennis this season by beating 27th seed Lorenzo Sonego in the third round at Wimbledon 2022 in straight sets 6-1,6-2,6-4 to reach the second week at SW19 for the 10th time. Nadal is now 17-0 at grand slams this year having won the Australian Open and the French Open. He is currently eyeing completing the calendar slam and for that to happen, he will have to win the next 4 matches at Wimbledon first.
In the third set, Nadal did a very uncharacteristic thing. He was up a break in the third set and was two sets up when the umpire called to shut the roof due to a drop in natural light. Nadal was unhappy with the decision as he was about to close out the match and the delay didn’t help him as he got broken in the very next game. Nadal was also frustrated with Sonego’s extended grunts.
Sonego grunts a lot and the grunting at times continues till the time the opponent is ready to hit the ball which may be distracting at times. Nadal was frustrated by the same and after getting broken, spoke to Sonego about it. He called the Italian at the net and started explaining what is bothering him which in hindsight, he shouldn’t have done as it may have distracted Sonego.
In the press conference, Nadal admitted that he was wrong for calling him on the net and apologized to everyone for that. “First of all I have to say that I was wrong,” Nadal said. “I should not call him on the net. So, apologies for that – my mistake in that. No problem in recognizing that.”
‘My intention was never to bother him at all’: Rafael Nadal
Nadal clarified that he has had an extended talk with Sonego in the locker room, the details of which, he doesn’t want to share. He revealed that he has personally apologized for his behavior to Sonego but whatever he did, it wasn’t with bad intention.
“After that, there are all other stuff during the match that I don’t want to comment on because it’s something that I spoke with him in the locker room and it stays there,” he added. “Only thing I can say is that I told him personally that I apologize for that. My intention was never to bother him at all, just to tell one thing that was bothering me at that moment but that’s it.”
Lakshya Chopra
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