Nadal has 'no problem' with umpire Bernardes despite time violations

Rafael Nadal and Carlos Bernardes have had disagreements before, but the world number one took no issue with two time violations in SW19.

Published : Jul 05, 2018 22:46 IST

Rafael Nadal insists he has no issue with umpire Carlos Bernardes despite receiving a pair of time violation warnings during his second-round win at Wimbledon.

The world number one came through a tough match with Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4 6-3 6-4, but Nadal's discipline was questioned even before play got under way on Thursday.

Bernardes warned Nadal as he took his time between the warm-up and the first serve and then, between games, when the Spaniard used a change of ends as an opportunity to switch his shirt.

Nadal has a history with the official, having asked for Bernardes not to referee his matches after the 2015 Rio Open, but the 17-time grand slam champion insists there are no lingering tensions.

"There is no problem with the umpire. I am nobody to say 'I don't want him on my court'," he said. "If I believe that somebody's not doing the things fair with me or was not respectful to me, I just can ask if is possible to have another umpire.

"I can't say 'I don't want this umpire'. I say, 'if it is possible, I would prefer another umpire on my court'.

"It is about what happened in Rio de Janeiro a couple of years ago. For me, personally, he was disrespectful. It was not because of time violations - I can understand the time violations.

"It's not about this kind of stuff. It's about the problem that I had with him in the past. It's about that bad moment. That's all.

"There are no problems with him. When I am slow, I accept the warnings. I do my best to be quick. Sometimes I am not good enough to be that quick. I need my time to think about what to do for the next point, that's all."

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