9 time French open champion Rafael Nadal has sparked a controversy yesterday when he confirmed that he made a request to French open authorities requesting them that his matches should not be officiated by Carlo Barnardes of Brazil. And it seems that his request has been granted, because none of his matches were officiated by Brazilian official since the controversy erupted in February.
Controversy started when Nadal was given warning twice for exceeding the 25 seconds between points at tournament earlier this year. These warnings were given when Nadal requested the Brazilian official to change his shorts & the official said he can but gave him a time warning as well.
16 time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer today reacted to this controversy after beating Marcel Garnollers 6-2, 7-6,6-3. Reacting to the Rafael Nadal’s request, he said, top players should not be given special treatment, players should be treated equally. There is room for flexibility in enforcement of rules but it should not depend upon players’ personal wish.
Earlier when he was asked whether he has ever made such kind of requests World no-1 Novak Djokovic said he never made such kind of requests & also added that the officials do their job best to their knowledge, sometimes their decisions are in your favour and sometimes not.
Former Australian open champion Stan Wawrinka was more circumspect & said players exerting power over officials can lead to a dangerous precedent. He said if one of the top players has a problem with an official it’s going to be tough for them to feature in the finals, although they would like to.
