The fans at the Australian Open turned on Rafael Nadal during Sunday’s final after the Spaniard took a break to receive treatment for his back injury during the second set.
Nadal left the court after being down 3-6, 1-2 in his finals match with Stan Wawrinka.
Wawrinka, who had all the momentum, was left to sit around for about seven minutes while waiting for Nadal to return. He voiced his displeasure with the chair umpire — he wanted to be told the reason why Nadal had left the court — and that led to an argument with the umpire.
The fans must have grown restless during the break and could have been upset with what they may have felt was a stall tactic by Nadal, because they booed him when he returned to the court:
Listen to the reaction from the crowd when #Nadal returns to court – http://t.co/ViRP79hoay #ausopen
— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 26, 2014
Nadal’s back injury was definitely legitimate, so the booing was uncalled for. Nadal was practically in tears, likely because of the injury and the disappointment of getting hurt during such a big match:
It's difficult to tell what's happening, but #Rafa seems to be in tears – http://t.co/y4Guhs2jFN #ausopen
— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 26, 2014
After Rafa finally won a game to make it 5-2 in the second set, the fans began to cheer him. They flipped back and supported him more in the third set when he won his serve and then broke Wawrinka, so it obviously didn’t take them long to get over whatever issues they had, but that was pretty crummy of them to turn on him in the first place.
