Rafael Nadal Not Happy with the Chair Umpire During ATP World Tour Finals 2019 Opener

Rafael Nadal was outplayed by the defending champion Alexander Zverev as he went down 6-2, 6-4 in his opening round-robin match in the Andre Agassi group at the ATP World Tour Finals 2019.

At the end of the first set, the world No.1 had a bit of rail with the chair umpire Ali Nili as he vented his frustration at the chair umpire, expressing his unhappiness.

Rafael Nadal was unhappy that the chair umpire had called in a Zverev shot at the end of the opening set – which went on to be the correct call – even though he had failed to hear a linesman calling the ball out.

Talking about his grievance in the post-match press conference at the ATP World Tour Finals 2019, Rafael Nadal said: “No, it’s fine. No problem at all. Conversations that happen in the match something that I really believed that he was not doing the right way in my personal opinion.”

“I don’t have the truth. It’s just a personal opinion and in my opinion, he did much better in the second set. That’s all,” the Spaniard concluded.

In order to qualify for the last four of the ATP World Tour Finals 2019, Rafael Nadal will have to win his remaining two Round-Robin matches of the Andre Agassi group, which are against the debutants Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 19-time Grand Slam champion is also aiming for ending the 2019 season as the top-ranked player in the ATP rankings for the fifth time in his career, a record that would equal him with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. However, Novak Djokovic stands in between the year-end No.1 position and Nadal.

The 2109 US Open and 2019 French open champion lead the Serbian by 440 points in the race for year-end No. 1 at the ATP rankings. However,  Rafael Nadal will have to win all the matches from here on to guarantee his spot at the top.