Weird stuff in Rafael Nadal’s camp.

The Spanish sensation fought valiantly and extremely hard in the Wimbledon semifinal before bowing to Roger Federer in the 4 sets. That was a highly spectacular match that was decided by details.

Nadal’s position against Federer

One of those little details that made the difference was Rafa returning Federer’s serve too much in the back of the court. That is a tactic that usually works extremely well for Nadal on clay court. However, things were different on grass as Roger was taking full advantage of Rafa’s position to serve often wide especially on the deuce court.

Uncle Toni and Francis Roig coaching Nadal

During an interview with RTVE, as reported by Fox Asia, uncle Toni admitted that he tried to coach Nadal during the match and coaching is not allowed.

Talking about the Wimbledon final between Federer and Djokovic, Toni commented

“I watched the final with him [Nadal] and I told him to look at where Djokovic was returning. He was much closer to the baseline than he did in the semi-finals.

He admitted I was right and he was wrong in returning all the time from very behind. I asked him why he did not change his return position as both Francis Roig and I were telling him that during the match. He told me he had not seen it, he did not understand us, and if he did he would have definitely done it.”

Patrick Mouratoglou and Coaching

Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou had a strong reaction when the American had a penalty for coaching during the US Open. The Frenchman said that the rule is nonsense because everyone does it… So was he right?