Rafael Nadal made many people unhappy when he openly declared to have personally requested (ie. banned) for Carlos Bernardes not to officiate his matches.
Worst of all it seems that ATP has agreed with that to raise many eyebrows. Bernardes had some arguments with Nadal, but a player of Rafa’s calibre can’t ban an umpire. In fact, this may affect the other umpires that in order not to “risk their career” they could be complacent to the big guys and that is clearly unfair for the other players.
World no.1 Novak Djokovic has already expressed his displeasure during a recent interview and now it is time for Roger to step in.
Federer: It’s the ATP and ITF that should decide
Roger tried to be diplomatic, but the message was very clear “You know, it is a very personal matter, like how in life you are better off with someone and not so with others. There are enough umpires out there hence, in his (Nadal’s) situation, it is not a big problem for the ATP or for the umpire or for himself. It is something very much between them, and that’s why I try to not focus on who is the umpire and and focus only on my game, so that those things won’t creep into my head. But yeah, it is hard.”
“We have played almost a thousand matches, so clearly with some umpires you have issues. But then, it is okay if the umpires also don’t have the best day. We understand that, it’s the same for us as well; we won’t be in our best moods every day,”
The interesting part was when Roger was asked if banning a umpire would affect the decisions of other umpires, Roger said yes
“True. That’s why I said it is a situation they need to figure out. It goes back to the same thing that everybody is making requests regarding when they want to play…I want to play Sunday, I want to play Monday, etc.; the players should understand that not every request can be granted. At the end of the day, you can make a request, but that doesn’t mean you are going to get that.
The end of the day, the tournament directors, the ATP, the ITF, they should be the ones to come to a decision, and the players should adhere to that. It is also important that they communicate together.”
| NOT LOOKING TO THE SAME DIRECTION |
