Rafael Nadal was surprised by the chair umpire’s decision to give him a time violation when he was waiting for Vasek Pospisil to be ready.
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Rafa acted like the man he is!!!! Well done ,Rafa, all around!!
Whether or not Rafa’s opponent was ready, Rafa knows or should know the serve clock rule. If Rafa is serving it is his responsibility to serve according to the rule or he will receive a time violation. The umpire would be watching the server, Rafa, to make sure he served on time, and not the receiver.
Yes, Rafa was sweet to be concerned about what was going on with his opponent but the rule also states “the receiver is responsible for playing to the server’s reasonable pace.”
In my opinion, if Pospisil was having a problem he should have alerted the umpire and not expected Rafa to act as an umpire. This was very unfair of Pospisil.
I think to drag other male players’ names into the conversation is just stupidity. In fact, I doubt very much that Roger or Novak would have risked a time warning/violation. And not because of a lack of altruism but because they just wouldn’t want time violations.
EVERYONE can see the clock. The clock was not out to get Rafa. Rafa did a good deed and unfortunately was called on it. Pospisil is a creep and it is he to whom Rafa’s fans should direct their anger. And the clock.
RAFA ROCKS KINDNESS
HAHAHA @ “Pospisil is a creep”
He has a very nice smile though. I’d rather give him the benefit of the doubt, but a time violation is quite audible and if that were me, I’d have been on the umpire like, “hey it was me who told him to wait until I was ready to serve, so give me that time violation instead.”
Yup! Verdict upheld: CREEP-like behavior!
Sentence: Straight sets crushing defeat by Rafa!
Come on Margo. There’s no point in allowing umpires some discretion if they’re not going to use it and instead stick rigidly to the letter of the law. Common sense must prevail. Suppose Pospisil or any other opponent had put their hand up asking for the server to wait because of a distraction in their line of vision from a spectator? Would the umpire see this if they were focused solely on the server and would the server be penalised just the same?
Hi Lorna,
What I said was it’s not up to a receiver or server when it comes to the clock. It’s up to the umpire and I feel Pospisil should have directed to the umpire any problem he was having. The umpire cannot have one eye on the server and the other eye on the receiver. I am not going to get into hypotheticals.
Did Pospisil come to Rafa’s aid? Did Pospisil tell the umpire he asked Rafa to wait?
The only thing the umpire knew was that Rafa was late to serve. And if one thinks about it, for Rafa to explain that Pospisil asked him to wait it probably made no sense to her. Or maybe she just didn’t care to investigate. Or maybe she thought Rafa was making it up. I don’t know what she was thinking.
Who is to say had she reviewed the tape she would have changed her ruling? We don’t know that.
Tennis umpires have a great deal of discretionary power and sometimes they make erroneous rulings, pro or con against a player. As a fan I can easily say I don’t think Rafa should have been penalized, but as an objective observer I can understand the umpire’s ruling.
I don’t know if umpires are buddy-buddy with each other but I hope she reviews the tape and discusses her ruling with other umpires so see how they might have handled the situation. What I want in rulings is fairness and consistency across the board.
Margo, I always have doubted your presence in this site which is usually for fans of Rafa. You keep on invading this area every time with denigrating comments towards Nadal to terminate with the stupid RAFA ROCKS….SOMETHING
Read most other comments on this umpire and Vosipîl behavior as they are diametrically opposed to yours.
Frankly, I find your presence here quire irritating
Wamos Rafa
Hi Puma Couldn’t agree more. My enjoyment of this excellent site improved hugely when I stopped reading Margo’s posts.
Some of these umpires are behaving very erratically. They need to line up so that Isner could fire some serves at their heads- that’ll give them some clarity of thought:)
First it was Alize Cornet and the bizarre violation she received for changing her top coz she wore it the wrong way, back to front. Of course later the USTA backtracked and said the umpire had been wrong in his actions. HIS… I’m not sure a female umpire would have acted in that way.
And then Rafa’s incident. Can common sense prevail?
Stay sweet Rafa, none of these shenanigans will get you down!
Watching replay of this time violation event I find it difficult to accept the unfairness of the umpire who did not do a replay, Prospisil who did not own up to his act and Rafa who did not insist on a replay. Imagine such unfairness being done to Federer or Djokovicz? First, no umpire would dare do this to anyone else but Rafa the humble gentleman of tennis, secondly, anyone but Rafa would have brought the roof of the court down, finally I hope Rafa will win this tournamnt and vindicate this unfairness.
Wamos Rafa, you are the best.
He’s one in a million or maybe a billion
Pospisil should have supported Rafa with that call. After all, he was the one who raised his hand signalling Rafa to wait before serving. But he didn’t, did he? He was afraid of losing a point. Now we know what kind of a person Pospisil is. And the umpire . . .
The most relevant question of the entire post match interview was about the warning the umpire gave Rafa for slow serving. We all saw how typical it is of Rafa to respect his opponent’s needs. What we saw in Toronto Rafa playing against Tsitsipas when he asked the umpire to give his opponent a repeated first serve was repeated here in a similar way Rafa waiting for his opponent to relax with his breathing. The umpire in this case with Pospisil should have been more vigilant and not given Rafa a warning and Pospisil should have owned up to his request from Rafa. Once again Rafa is the fair play against an opponent that in the end almost showed that he did not deserve the respect and an umpire who jumped on the chance to give Rafa a warning. Let’s give Pospsil the benefit of the doubt and say perhaps he did not see what the entire court could witness! Also how typical of Rafa not to make a big issue of the event in his answer to the question during the interview. Wamos Rafa get this trophy US Open 2018!
The umpire clearly jumped the gun in giving Rafa a time violation. She could have easily looked at a reply to see that Rafa was right. Pospisil should have supported Rafa in his this. All credit to Rafa, who took the warning with a smile and carried on to victory. The problem with most of these umpires is that they are not willing to admit when they are wrong, despite the fact that everyone else can see it.
My concern is that the umpire’s error could have happened at a crucial point in a closer match.
I’m impressed by Rafa’s movement and ball striking and i like the way he’s now incorporated the jump backhand into his game. This all bodes well for greater battles to come. Looking good champ!
I think these umps need to chill out a little and enjoy the game also!
She could have easily looked at a replay………
Chair umpire clearly got that wrong, Impressive performance from Rafa. Great to see him playing with confidence and joy. Now for the next step in retaining his crown
Nadal is a great player
I was watching the game’s Live coverage by Fox Sports here in Manila, Philippines and it was clearly shown on television that Pospisil raised his hand signalling for Rafa to wait before serving. The chair umpire missed that hand gesture maybe. But what was cute was the way Rafa “appealed his case” to the Umpire and even calling out to Vasek to prove his point. And smiling at that! So endearing.
<3
The time violation call to Rafa was really surprising as Rafa was waiting for Pospisil to get ready for his service.It was really a harsh call.