Nadal hits the roof over Centre Court
RAFA NADAL was left furious after Wimbledon decided to play the last two sets of his semi-final with Novak Djokovic under the roof of Centre Court feeling it put him at a disadvantage.
Under the roof on Friday night, Nadal and Djokovic’s semi-final was suspended with the Serb leading by two sets to one because of Wimbledon’s 11pm curfew.
Nadal’s camp briefed Spanish journalists over the injustice following his 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 10-8 defeat in five hours and 15 minutes yesterday, citing the Wimbledon rulebook.
They pointed out Clause A in the Protocol For The Use Of The Roof, which reads: ‘The Championships is an outdoor daytime event. Therefore, in good weather, the roof will only be used if it is too dark to play on without it.’
The roof had to be closed on Friday night following Kevin Anderson and John Isner’s marathon match but it was kept shut yesterday despite clear and sunny conditions.
The decision left Nadal and his team angry. The reason the world No1 was so against playing under cover on Centre Court was because he felt it would favour Djokovic.
Nadal notoriously struggles when it comes to indoor tennis and he said yesterday: ‘It’s an outdoor tournament. OK, we start indoors. What I don’t understand is, today, we could have started outdoors. Today we continued undercover because we started undercover. I don’t think it’s right. It’s an outdoor tournament.
‘If the previous part of the match started with the roof on, there was logic but I don’t understand why it had to be closed.’
Wimbledon rules say the referee has ultimate control over the Centre Court roof and, despite the dry conditions, they decided to keep it closed.
Djokovic said: ‘The tournament organisers and referees said that the roof has to be closed because we started the match with the roof closed. They told us we had to play under the roof. I was for the roof because we started to play under it. I wanted to play in the same conditions.’
Serena Williams, meanwhile, described it as a ‘necessary evil’ that her final with Angelique Kerber did not have an official start time because of the men’s semi-final.
Organisers scheduled the conclusion of Nadal-Djokovic first on Centre Court at 1pm, and the women’s final to follow.
Some on social media described it as disrespectful that the biggest women’s match of the year was delayed but Williams, who lost 6-3, 6-3, said: ‘It definitely didn’t have any impact on me. It was a necessary evil. They didn’t finish their match. They had to finish. It had to be completed.
‘Not knowing how this match would go, two hours, three hours, I don’t think they could put the men’s semi-final behind the women because they have to come back the next day. If the tables were turned, hopefully they would have done the same with the women.’