Roger Federer believes the rules should be applied equally to all players when it comes to time violations, and that includes Rafael Nadal.
Federer talked last week about the time rules at Wimbledon and had a response when informed that Nadal was averaging 25 seconds in between points during a match Thursday against Lukas Rosol. At grand slam events, only 20 seconds are allowed.
“You cannot take 25 seconds. I mean, I know you need to focus. That you can do in 10 seconds,” said Federer, who has had an issue for years with Nadal taking so long between points. “It just can’t be that we only see two points per minute. Of course you need to give leeway [after] tough rallies and to somebody who needs a bit more time. I’m fine with that. I watched some matches, I don’t remember who it was, but they were playing so slow I was like, OK, I really can’t watch it. It’s going too slow for me.”
Nadal responded to Federer’s comments.
“It comes a time when this little song gets everyone tired. There is an umpire, let’s let him take those decisions, that’s what he is there for. People should stop coming to press conferences always repeating the same things.”
He then turned the tables onto Novak Djokovic.
“Also, I don’t think I am the only one violating the rule,” continued Nadal via Tennis World. “Novak Djokovic too has been warned many times. Actually I think he has been told off many more times than I did.”
Nothing like deflecting the attention from yourself by redirecting it to someone else.
Though rules are rules, I feel like this is something minor, especially if a player is only doing it once in a while. But if they’re consistently violating it and taking excessive amounts of time, then it’s a problem. Keep in mind that for other events, the time limit is 25, so that’s what these players are used to. I think it’s tough to expect them to break their habits just for grand slams.
