“Is this a joke?” Rafael Nadal indirectly hits back at John McEnroe for accusing him of getting preferential treatment from umpires for the time clock rule
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Rafael Nadal
22-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal got his US Open campaign to a good start by beating Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata in the first round in four sets 4-6,6-2,6-3,6-3. With this win, Nadal has kept his unbeaten streak alive at grand slams in 2022 alive. He won the Australian Open and the French Open earlier this year before withdrawing from the Wimbledon semifinal last month.
Nadal pulled out of the Wimbledon semifinal due to an abdomen injury which ruled him out for almost a month. He returned to the tour at Montreal where he lost the opening match. With no match practice, a lot of questions were kept in hanging about Nadal’s form and fitness which he answered on Tuesday night against Hijikata.
He looked rusty at the start and lost the opening set but was quick to gain momentum and change things around. Nadal was put under a lot of pressure on his backhand but he managed to answer it by a series of passing shots. Nadal played 3 incredible sets and then won the match convincingly in 4 sets.
In the post-match press conference, Nadal was questioned by a journalist about the time he takes in between points. Throughout his tennis career, Nadal has had a reputation of taking much longer in between points and not respecting the 25 seconds shot clock. The journalist quoted John McEnroe who during his commentary said that Nadal gets preferential treatment from the umpires. Nadal had a laugh about it and called the entire question a joke.
Rafael Nadal calls the ‘time clock’ question which accuses him, a joke
He said that throughout his tennis career, he has had a lot of warnings- never for breaking a racket or causing a mess on court, but for the time clock and the reason is simple- he sweats a lot.
“I think it’s a joke. I went through a lot of warnings under my tennis career. Never for breaking a racquet, never for doing a mess on court. But, yes, for the time clock. I have a problem that I am sweating a lot,” Nadal said.
He said that as he sweats a lot, he has to go to the other side of the court to pick up the towels since the ball boys don’t do that anymore and this process takes up the 25 seconds- hence, he takes a bit more time and for that, he gets warnings. He concluded by said that he doesn’t think he gets any different treatment from the umpires at all.
“The problem for players like me that am sweating that much, you know when you go to pick up the towel, you going to be in trouble with the time. So I am not going very often. I don’t think I have a different treatment from the umpires at all,” Nadal said.
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Lakshya Chopra
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