05 June,2017 10:27 AM IST | Paris | AFP
Rafael Nadal blasted French Open umpire Carlos Ramos yesterday for treating him like a machine and suggested he was being unfairly targeted in an effort to speed up play
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal blasted French Open umpire Carlos Ramos yesterday for treating him like a "machine" and suggested he was being unfairly targeted in an effort to speed up play.
Nadal reached a record-equalling 11th Roland Garros quarter-final with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win over Spanish compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut. But his joy was overshadowed by an astonishing broadside at Ramos. The umpire had warned the 31-year-old in the first set for slow play and again in the third before deciding to dock Nadal a first serve.
"If you want to play well, you have to let players breathe a little. We're not machines that cannot think. That's my viewpoint," said Nadal, who repeatedly falls foul of the rule which stipulates a maximum 25 seconds between points. "What else can I say? I'm telling you this with some sadness, because I don't want to have any problems. But this umpire is, I think, trying, in a certain way, to look for my faults, my errors," Nadal added.
