Rafael Nadal is a notoriously slow player on the tennis courts, and the issue of pace came up again during the US Open final on Sunday between him and Daniil Medvedev.
Medvedev was serving to start the fifth set of the championship match and was leading 40-15. His first serve was a let and he wanted to attempt his next serve. Nadal asked him to slow down, complaining that he couldn’t hear anything.
What did Nadal need to hear? Bianca Andreescu also complained that the crowd noise in the women’s final prevented her from being able to hear herself think, so maybe Nadal had a similar issue.
Medvedev won the point to go up 1-0 in the deciding set.
Nadal took the first two sets before Medvedev rallied to win the next two and send things to a deciding set.
Roger Federer has always played at a good pace and complained about slow players before, leaving both Nadal and Novak Djokovic to respond. It’s no surprise the issue resurfaced for Nadal on a big stage Sunday.
