ROGER FED UP
Nadal played too slowly, moans beaten Federer
FACING the blazing, brilliant groundstrokes of Rafael Nadal i s hard enough, let alone having to cope with his grunting and serial tendency to take excessive times between points.
Roger Federer did not blame his Australian Open semi-final defeat by the Spaniard on the latter two irritations, but is clearly losing patience with the leniency being shown to the world No 1 in those two areas.
The great Swiss twice complained in the second set about the grunting to umpire Jake Garner who, like most of his colleagues do, let it all go during a 7-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory that has put Nadal in touching distance of making more history.
Only Federer’s compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka can now stop him from becoming the first player in modern times to win each Grand Slam twice, and with a 0-12 career record it is diffi cult t o see t hat happening.
The seven-time Wimbledon champion t ook exception to varied levels of grunting from the other side of the net, and as usual was constantly kept waiting between points as Nadal continually went way past the theoretical 20-second limit.
Asked later whether he was distracted by the grunting he replied: ‘ Not when he does it every point, but it goes in phases, one point he does and one point he doesn’t, that’s what I was complaining about.’
On the matter of time between points, a running sore in the whole sport which authorities are desperately weak and inconsistent on, he gave a measured response: ‘Rafa is doing a much better job than he used to, I’m not complaining much about the time but I think I’ve played him 33 times and he’s got two points penalties over the course of our rivalry.
‘You either have rules or you don’t. If you don’t have rules it’s fine, everybody can do what they want to do. It’s important to enforce the rules on all levels, don’t give me or Djokovic a f ree pass because of who we are. ‘We should all be judged the same way, not just a guy on court 16, who you can give a time violation to just because you can.
‘On centre court they’re always going to be afraid to take those decisions. I don’t want to go and complain all the time, I never do. I just hope they do their job correctly. Sometimes you’ve just go to say things.’
He has a fair point: those who do not grunt or yelp and play at the correct pace are simply not protected enough.
However, as he stressed, that was not why he lost. It had more to do with the fact that, once again, he could not quite handle the consistently vicious power of the attacks to his backhand and he did not serve as well as he had done against Andy Murray.
Wawrinka, another with a single-handed backhand, will be similarly challenged. Not only has he never beaten Nadal, he has not even taken a set off him, so it is no surprise the Spaniard is huge favourite.
It is a rare evening when you get four alltime greats under one roof: the two men on court and the watching Rod Laver and Pete Sampras. Although Laver could give the ball a decent clunk in his day, the way Nadal strikes it makes this look like a different sport from the one the great Australian played and starkly contrasting to the netcharging of Sampras.
As for Federer, his elegant game style looks increasingly badly matched against his rival, despite him doing a fair impression in the previous two rounds against Murray and Jo Wilfried Tsonga of what he was like five years ago.
Those reminders should spur the Swiss on to believe that he can at least be a factor in the majors, with Wimbledon the most likely place he will win No 18. Increasingly, it looks like Nadal, on the brink of No 14, will one day overtake him.
A year ago, Nadal was a week away from his comeback from long-term knee problems, which he seems to have somehow consigned to history. His physical issue here has been a wince-inducing blister on his left palm, but again he has been able to manage it. There were no signs of the problems it caused in the two previous rounds, but one of his gifts is to be able to elevate himself to a different level of determination in the biggest matches.
He denied that he was trying to put anyone off with his grunting, saying: ‘I never do anything on court to bother an opponent. When I am hitting the ball in a rally, the last thing I am thinking about is bothering the opponent.’
Ultimately, his creation of 14 break points to Federer’s two told of the gap between them, and after five straight losses, a win for the 32-year-old in this rivalry for the ages is starting to look more of a remote prospect.