Roger Federer: “Either You Have Rules or You Don’t”

Published 10/07/2018, 1:50 AM EDT

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Roger Federer is well known for getting through his service games efficiently and quickly. Before his opponent knows it its his turn to serve again. However the same cannot be said about the rest of the players. Rafael Nadal is one of those players, who in the past, has been accused of time wasting and changing the tempo of the game by running down the clock.

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”Rafa is doing a much better job today than he used to”, said Roger Federer. “I’m not complaining much about the time. He’s gotten two point penalties over the course of our rivalry. I just think that’s not quite happening. I mean, we know how much time he used to take. I’m not complaining about so many things.”

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Federer said that rules have to be rules. You cannot treat a player playing on the centre court differently than a player playing on court number four. “I just think it’s important to enforce the rules on many levels, whatever it may be. On all the players the same way”, said Federer. “Either you have rules or you don’t. If you don’t have rules, it’s fine. Everybody can do whatever they want to do.”

“Don’t give me or Djokovic a free pass just because of who we are”, he added. “I think we should all be judged the same way. Not just a guy on Court 16 because the guy had a brutal rally, you have to give him a time violation just because you can.” 

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Federer also said that he always likes to keep the umpires on their toes. It is important that all the rules are being followed on the court and the umpires do not slack away. “On center court, they’re always going to be afraid, the umpires, to take those decisions. I just like to challenge them a little bit”, said the Swiss maestro. “I don’t want to go in the office and complain all the time. I never do. I just hope they do their job correctly. If they don’t, what are you going to do? Sit and watch? Sometimes you just got to say things.”

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