Shocking. Umpire that challenged Nadal for time wasting withdrawn from matches

Terrible stuff on tour.

Carlos Bernardes was the last official  to challenge Rafael Nadal for time-wasting. The rule is that players shouldn’t take more than 25 seconds in between point and we all know that Rafa goes much beyond this limit.

Unfortunately according to the Telegraph Carlos Bernardes will not be the umpire of Rafa in the future matches.

Rafa: “I will make sure that you don’t arbitrate me anymore.”…

During a recent match in Rio when Nadal lost to Fognini, Carlos Bernardes gave Nadal 2 warnings for time-violation and the Spaniard lost the first serve. During the changeover the King of Clay was furious against the umpire (that did his job) to say “I will make sure that you don’t arbitrate me anymore.”… and in fact since then Carlos has never officiated Rafa’s matches. Not something we particularly like.

… he was not fair with me.

During a press conference in Indian Wells Rafa commented “[Bernardes] was not fair enough the last couple of times

He has been putting more pressure on me than other umpires. For me it is not right [when] you see players doing bad words, breaking rackets, doing shows on court, and that’s less important than five seconds late, six seconds late? Sorry, I cannot accept that, I cannot say that’s right.

I know I am little bit slow, but in Rio the weather conditions … I finish every match and my hand was like I have been two hours in the jacuzzi.”

The sentiment

There is a widespread sentiment that this time wasting is not right or fair toward the other players. Analyst Barry Cowan commented : “Rules are rules and this isn’t a grey area. We often see Nadal getting a first warning, and it’s usually on a big point – when he’s serving for the set perhaps – as if the umpires want so say, ‘Hey, we’re getting tough here’. But then they don’t take the next step. Whereas when Marcel Granollers cramped up in a match in Madrid the other day and couldn’t get into position, bang: point gone. We heard Dimitry Tursunov say it during a match last year: it’s one rule for Rafa and one for everyone else.”