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When world number one Rafael Nadal pulled the pin with a hip problem down 2-0 in the fifth set against Marin Cilic at the Australian Open, nobody could have predicted what happened at the after-match media conference.
Nadal opened fire against tennis administrators demanding they should think a little bit about what’s going on.
“Too many players are getting injured, if we keep playing on these very hard surfaces, what’s going to happen in the future with our lives?” Nadal added.
He was referring to Andrew Murray’s lingering hip injury, Novak Djokovic’s elbow, and Stan Wawrinka’s knee.
But the difference between that talented trio and Nadal, is they stuck to their decisions, and never made a song and dance about their injuries.
Murray didn’t even start in Melbourne, Wawrinka went out in the second round to American Tennys Sandgren in straight sets, while Djokovic was also straight-setted in the fourth round by the 21-year-old South Korean sensation Hyeon Chung.
Both Wawrinka and Djokovic could have walked off early, but they stuck it out to the finish and made no excuses, despite their obvious injuries, and both praised their conquerors.
Not Rafa.
Like a bad tradesman, he blamed his tools.
(AFP PHOTO / SAEED KHAN)
But that’s Nadal who genuinely believes he has some divine right to win every time he steps onto the court.
And he’ll try every trick in the book to make sure that happens.
Fact.
There are only four possible reasons why Nadal pulled the pin against Cilic.
He has a bad schedule his body can’t cope with, he’s injury prone, he’s a hypochondriac, or a tanker.
No administrator ever puts a gun to a tennis player’s head that he must play every tournament. Scheduling is totally up to the player, and his support team.
Injury prone? Quite probably, but that could be a direct result of bad scheduling.
Hypochondriac or tanker? The first possibly, but not the tanking because he can cover that by injury.
You see, Nadal is not only a very good player, but very good at competing under his rules.
The most blatant is the time rule between points.
In the Slams it’s 25 seconds from the completion of a point to when the server must restart the next.
Nadal is a serial offender regularly taking over 30-35 seconds, slowing the play down to his speed.
Throughout his career Nadal has bluffed central umpires, as he’s very rarely even warned, let alone docked a penalty point for time violation.
In the Cilic clash, the Croatian was warned for time violation when he was constantly well within the 25 seconds.
But Nadal was constantly well over 25 seconds, and didn’t even cop a warning.
(AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI)
It’s 90 seconds in the changeovers, watch Nadal next time.
He waits until his opponent is entrenched on the baseline, and up jumps Nadal and like the show pony he is, sprints into position – well after 90 seconds.
Cut the crap Nadal, and remember when you return there will be a growing number of tennis fans who realise you have been toying with the ethics of the sport for years. You are fast running out of rope.
The sad part is Rafael Nadal doesn’t have to go through all his histrionics of adjusting his shorts, tugging at his shirt on both shoulders, touching both ears, both eyes, and his forehead before he even bounces the ball prior to serving.
The histrionics take more than 25 seconds without adding ball selection, and bouncing.
It’s all so obvious.
You will never see Roger Federer being anything less than the one of the finest ambassadors the sport has known.