Nadal blasts Wimbledon shot-clock plan

LONDON — Rafael Nadal insisted that plans by Wimbledon to introduce a 25-second shot clock will kill off the sport's capacity for epic Grand Slam confrontations.

The US Open will have a shot clock for this year's tournament with Wimbledon poised to follow suit.

World number one Nadal is routinely warned for slow play between points.

However, he believes players need time to compose themselves between points and to ponder tactics over five sets.

"If you want to see a quick game without thinking, well done," said Nadal.

"If you want to keep playing in a sport that you need to think, you need to play with more tactics, you want to have long and good rallies, then of course you are going the wrong way.

"But seems like sometimes it is only about the business, so... I can't support this because I don't feel the matches that stay for the history of our sport went that quick."

Nadal has been involved in epic confrontations down the years as he amassed 17 Grand Slam titles.

He famously defeated Roger Federer in 2008 for the first of his two Wimbledon titles in a final which took the best part of five hours and ended in neardarkness.

In 2012, he lost the longest final at a major to Novak Djokovic in Australia, a five-setter which stretched to five hours and 53 minutes.

"I don't remember any emotional match that the total time was two hours," added the 32-year-old Nadal.