Maybe Serena has a point which you look at the loutish behaviour Federer got away with there without sanction.
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The Australian media and Marin Cilic highlighted the preferential treatment that Nadal gets from most of the officials after Nadal quit on his chair against Cilic in Melbourne back in January.
SPORTS Entertainment Network (SEN) tennis expert and Australian Open TV presenter Brett Phillips has taken aim at Rafael Nadal and tennis officials over his continual time wasting.
The Spaniard is known for pushing the boundaries — and often exceeding them — when it comes to taking advantage of the 25 seconds players are allotted between points.
He has received time violations in the past — but according to Phillips, not nearly enough. The host of SEN tennis program The First Serve says Nadal has been receiving preferential treatment for far too long because of his ranking and status in the sport.
“Grunting is one thing but there’s a bigger issue with Nadal and that’s the amount of time it takes him to play a tennis match. He gets away with absolute murder let me tell you,” Phillips told Andy Maher and Nick Dal Santo when discussing his quarter-final against Marin Cilic on SEN radio on Wednesday afternoon.
“Marin Cilic actually got a time violation. He said, ‘You’ve got to be joking.’
“Look at the bloke at the other end of the court who’s got two towels, he’s got to sort his drink bottles out — he wastes everyone’s time.
“He’s got away with it for that long.
“I love him (Nadal) and it’s hard not to love him but watching his tennis matches are painful at times. That’s hard to say about someone who’s reached the top of the mountain.
“Absolutely (officials cut him slack). The ATP are looking at all these innovations right now — the ATP tournament where there’s a shot clock. Nadal hates it because he wouldn’t be able to do all the things he wants to do — get his towels sorted and his drink bottles and everything else.
“He’s always making everyone wait and he’s got away with it for far too long. Let’s hope with the next generation they sort that out.”
Nadal is famous for his attention to detail, needing all his drink bottles to be lined up in a row with the labels facing the same direction before he can start a point. His obsessive superstitions are part of the reason he takes longer than most to get through matches.
Nadal retired in the fifth set of his quarter-final clash against Cilic, making it just the second time in 264 grand slam encounters the World No. 1 has pulled out mid-match. As Phillips mentioned, Cilic copped a warning for time wasting in the second set but Nadal escaped scot-free.
The Croatian was warned just before serving when down break point and he recorded a double fault to hand Nadal a 3-2 lead.
Cilic let the chair umpire know during the change of ends there was a better moment for her to pick when he should have been given the warning for taking longer than 25 seconds in between points.
Channel 7 commentator Jim Courier said the chair umpire has a device to measure how long each player takes in between serves.
He said the umpire’s decision to warn Cilic on break-point down was difficult to understand when Seven statisticians recorded that Cilic went over the 25 second mark 40 per cent of the time, while Nadal was responsible for going over his allotted time 45 per cent of the time — and escaped any warning.
He said Nadal has a reputation for being a habitual line-stepper of the time allowed in between serves, but is not punished because of his stature as the No. 1 ranked player.
“She will know that these guys are going over the line,” Courier said.
“The thing for Cilic is to get one when you are down break point if you have done it so many times. That unfortunately is a pattern we see time and time again with certain umpires. They wait until the absolute worst time. Do it after the first point of a service game.
“Rafa is notorious for stretching the limits and matches take so long. That’s part of the reason.”
I don’t see what that has to do with court violations.
One would expect you’re trying to deflect from your most blatant of contradictions.
Here’s one of Federer accusing the umpire of being a liar after he refused to fall for Federer’s attempts at cheating.
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When I went to the Brisbane international Federer got a bye into the semi final because He was too tired to play in the earlier rounds
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I see the Williams camp are fucking everyone under the bus so save Serena’s blushes, even uncle Tony and Nadal were named flung out there about coaching.
Fucking delighted Williams has been exposed for cunt she is. If it’s not her way then it’s everyone else fault
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She was claiming discrimination over all the drug tests she has to go through as well. Of course she had a shitload of retrospective TUE’s a few years back.
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She threw out everything last night, sexism, racism and even motherhood. Of course the US press are lapping this up with poor serena always the victim, rudeski was great last night, said it was all Serenas fault and she took away from what was a brilliant performance from Osaka.
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They are bending over backwards to say she was fighting sexism yesterday. It was the most pathetic, spoilt showing in modern tennis.
I saw a couple of lads there praising Serena’s speech during the trophy presentation.
It was the least she could do after the holy show she made during the match. She already had made her grand show for the world to see, turning the spotlight away from her opponent.
Absolutely pathetic that some people will not call out shitty behaviour just because you put up the identity politics shield to ascribe your actions.
All this shit about McEnroe’s behaviour. McEnroe was reviled by lots of people and hated by the authorities. Footballers are regularly called scumbags for swearing at the ref, in comparison to rugby players (“this is not soccer” cc @Bandage). You could go on and on with make sportstars behaving like that. There’s no other profession in the world where someone’s character is regularly assaulted for perception and minor discretions like sport, and it’s a male dominated profession.
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@Cicero_Dandi won’t like that development. He refused to condemn her appalling behavior last night presumably because Nadal has his own agenda against Carlos Ramos and has tried to prevent Ramos from umpiring him. Now Serena has seemingly gone and put the boot into Nadal and Uncle Toni.
Can you not bring yourself to address the disgusting tirade Federer launched at the umpire in the above video.
You’re new around here kid. You’re posting up a video clip of Roger from 9 years ago. That was discussed here at the time. Why don’t you go away and check the audit trail from September 2009.
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I haven’t seen you comment on it. Care to show us where you did?
Maybe you should tell the forum whether you think it was acceptable or not.
Miss Williams is right about one thing. Women players are treated differently than men. John McEnroe at the Australian Open in 1990 and Jeff Tarango at the Championship in 1995 defaulted matches after lesser outbursts than what we saw last night. Both had defaulted a point, then a game and third strike they were out. Miss Williams was extremely fortunate that Umpire Ramos showed some compassion last night and didn’t default the match on her.
No tirade against an umpire should be accepted, whether its, Nadal, Federer, Murray or Williams. I know you wont accept that because it doesn’t play into your oh poor me always the victim.
Serena was a cunt last night, she was losing and couldn’t cope with Osakas game so she had a meltdown, not the first time for her.
Did Federer’s tirade in 2009 come under the same degree of scrutiny?
Why don’t you take on a new project in your bedsit for the night. A few hours wading back through tennis related posts from nine years ago in September 2009 and I’m sure you’ll find an audit trail on that clip you’ve posted up.
I see serena has been fined 17,000 for her meltdown last night. Not even pocket change for her.
Head is saying Djokovic for tonight but my heart is saying Del Potro. Would love to see the Argentine win it.
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It would be a welcome change to see Del Potro win. A fairly sobering thought that when the Australian Open comes around in January there will be no Grand Slam winner under 30 in the gentlemen’s field. Cilic and Del Potro both turn 30 within a week of each other at the end of this month.