World No.1 Rafael Nadal has said that his match against Novak Djokovic shouldn’t have been played under the roof on Saturday.
Nadal resumed his match against the Serbian at 13:00 GMT this afternoon after their clash last night was postponed due to the Wimbledon curfew. The tournament is only allowed to run matches until 11pm in agreement with the local council. Upon resumption the clash took place on Centre Court under the roof, despite it being a warm and sunny day. Officials argued that it was done so to maintain consistency in the conditions with Friday.
“No.” A frustrated Nadal responded when asked if it made sense to close the roof.
“I will not talk more about this. If not, you (the media) are going to write about this.”
The 11-time French Open champion elaborated further about the topic when he was speaking with Spanish media.
“It doesn’t sound right, I believe that if the tournament is an outdoor tournament, and more unfortunately the match before lasted longer. We start without the roof, we stop when there is no light and we continue the following day, because the tournament is like this”. He commented about the decision to cover the court on Friday.
“In that moment I understood the rationale, but I did not understand that we would play indoor today unless we both agreed to play outdoor, and evidently, we did not agree”
Nadal’s agent, Benito Barbadillo, told reporters that there was ‘no rules’ that stipulated that the match much have been played indoors.
“It was difficult for me to adapt to the indoor court, I didn’t see too well. I couldn’t read how the ball was coming. During the night there is some kind of semi-darkness, but during the day the visibility is better. The court is a good court, but you don’t see too well when the roof is closed.” Nadal said.
It was claimed that the only way the match could have been played in the open was if both agreed to it. It was reported that Djokovic, who won the final set 10-8, objected to the motion. Although that speculation was dismissed by the Serbian.
“The tournament organizers and referees said that the roof has to be closed because we started the match with the roof closed.” Said Djokovic.
The two players were placed in the predicament due to the length of the preceding semi-final. Kevin Anderson required six hours and 36 minutes to defeat John Isner. Raising calls for tiebreakers to be implemented in the fifth set of matches.
“‘It’s true that the schedule was a little bit tight knowing that the first match between two big servers, of course you can’t predict that they play that long.” He said.
“But yeah, knowing that, maybe will be better if they play us first at 1pm, that’s all. The rest of the things you can’t complain anything that happened.”
Despite his frustrations and disappointment, the Spaniard can still seek solace in his week at The All England Club. It is the first year he has reached the semi-finals of the tournament since 2011. Furthermore, only three plays have managed to beat him on the tour so far this year. Marin Cilic (via retirement), Dominic Thiem and now Djokovic.
“I Played great. Reaching the semifinals, after a while without being there. I won some great matches, especially in that quarter-finals against del Potro. Today was another great match.” He concluded about his Wimbledon run.
“I feel that I have lost an opportunity to try to win another very important title for my career. But that’s it.”
“I think I have done great work. Is difficult to come back after injuries for a long time and have these kind of results, so I am proud of myself.”
According to his schedule, Nadal will return to action next month at the Canadian Masters in Toronto.
