Rafael Nadal:- “He Make Me Change My Shorts in Front of 7000 People”

Majority of the tennis matches do not have much drama involved between the players and the chair umpires. However, there are times when the friction between the player and chair umpire sparks a full blown situation. Rafael Nadal, who is known to be a fierce competitor, is also widely revered as a good sportsman. However, even the Spaniard has had his share of troubles with the chair umpires.

In his press conference at the Australian Open 2019, Rafael Nadal revealed his problems with the chair umpire Carlos Bernardes. “I never had problems, being honest”, said Rafael Nadal. “I had some issues, I mean, long-term problems”, he continued. “I consider myself a very relaxed guy on court. As everybody knows, I had an issue with Carlos in Rio”, said Rafael Nadal.

“But for me is not about one thing or another thing that can happen on the match, everybody can have mistakes”, continued the Spaniard. “For me, the only reason why during a small period of time I request that if I cannot have him on the chair was because, in my opinion, that day in Rio de Janeiro, he didn’t respect me”, said Rafael Nadal recalling the match that had a lot of drama in it. “That is all. He make me change my shorts in front of 7000 people. Sorry, I don’t believe that’s nice. That’s all”, said Rafael Nadal.

Apart from that Nadal said he had no problems with Carlos over the other calls that he made. “If he’s pushing me with the time, making a negative call, that’s part of the business. Everybody have mistakes. I have mistakes. I am wrong sometimes. Under pressure, I can do sometimes things that being relaxed you will not. But that’s all. I only had that issue”, said Rafael Nadal.

However, Nadal says that the both of them have put the incident behind them, and have moved on. He said that he would have no problems with him if he officiates him in the upcoming Australian Open. “Being honest, I respect him a lot. I think he’s one of the best umpires that we had for a long time”, said Rafael Nadal. “But that day was a mistake. He had time to think about it, that’s all. He did something that in my personal opinion was not respecting me, but that’s all”, he added.

“We spoke. We don’t have problems at all. If he’s on the chair tomorrow, after tomorrow, I will not think at all about what happened in the past. No, no, no problems at all”, said the world number two.

Rafael Nadal, will feature on the opening day of the first round matches on Monday. Find out who else is playing on Monday here.