I WAS NOT RUDE TO THE BALL BOY
Verdasco defends himself over towel row
Fernando Verdasco found himself cast as public enemy no 1 on social media after a clip of him berating a ball boy during the recent Shenzhen open went viral.
The Spanish left-hander, who had gestured frantically to be given his towel from the back of the court, was cited as the prime example of how players mistreat children whose main purpose is to pick up and feed the balls.
It has become a hot topic to the extent that next week’s Under 21 aTP ‘nextGen’ finals in Milan will experiment with having towel rails at the back of the court.
But speaking for the first time about the incident in September, Verdasco not only defended himself but also criticised the idea of players fetching their own towels to wipe down sweat.
‘Through history all players do things like that,’ said Verdasco of his outburst. ‘obviously I didn’t mean to be like that but I think with social media there are certain people who sometimes speak too much. I received many messages telling me to apologise — it looks like I did something really wrong to the guy.
‘It was super humid and the kid was obviously not understanding english when I was asking for a towel. of course I understand and I apologise to all the people who took it so wrong, but it never was my intention to be rude.
‘It looked like I hit the ball boy, I punch him in the face or I tell him something rude, but I was just talking fast. I love ball boys, I always tell them thank you over 15 years of my career and maybe one time when I did a bad gesture everyone was killing me.’
Verdasco, who yesterday lost to Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri in the second round at the rolex Paris Masters, is not a fan of next week’s experiment.
‘I think the ball boys are on the court to try to help the players. Taking out the ball boys to give you the towel or the balls is something that is ridiculous,’ he said.
‘obviously the player is the one who has the pressure sometimes and maybe they have bad reactions, but sometimes I get warnings because I am not ready when I go to get the towel really fast. I think that taking this away is something very bad.’
novak djokovic will be world no 1 for the first time in two years next week after rafael nadal yesterday withdrew from the Paris Masters with a stomach injury.
djokovic was ranked 21 going into Wimbledon but now looks like finishing the season in the top spot. nadal said he was experiencing pain when serving but did not rule himself out of London’s nitto aTP Finals, beginning on november 11.