Players are not being considered, says Nadal
Just hours after John McEnroe accused officials of “bungling” their scheduling as they attempt to get this year’s weather-hit tournament finished on time, the number two seed joined the criticism after finally reaching the fourth round following his on-off, five-day marathon against Robin Soderling.
The pair had to endure seven rain breaks across five days, before Nadal won 6-4 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 4-6 7-5.
Afterwards an angry Nadal said: “I didn’t understand some things. I didn’t understand why we didn’t play on Sunday. The weather was okay, so much better than yesterday, Monday and today too.
“I didn’t understand why they cancelled yesterday when at 8.10pm the sunshine is here for one hour, so we could have played one hour.
“I didn’t understand when we were going to the court to play for 15 minutes and they know because they have the meteo (weather forecast).
“That’s very tough for the players. They don’t think very much about the players here maybe.”
Nadal’s outburst came on the back of a frustrating match against Soderling which was called to Centre Court on Saturday and finally ended, after nine rain interruptions, on Court One yesterday afternoon.
The Spaniard continued: “It has never been like this.
“I have been here for maybe five years. I don’t remember something like this. It was the toughest match maybe of my career.”
Elsewhere Novak Djokovic beat Nicolas Kiefer in the final third-round match. The pair resumed at one set all and fourth seed Djokovic immediately took control on Court Two, breaking twice to wrap up the third set.
The Serb missed numerous break points in the fourth and was taken to a tie-break before winning 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 7-6 (7-5), and he faces Lleyton Hewitt in round four.
The 20-year-old’s view on the scheduling debate was clear. “What I didn’t agree with is that there was no play on Sunday,” he said. “I think it’s a bad decision by the organisers.”
Meanwhile Andy Roddick completed a rain-interrupted win over Paul-Henri Mathieu on Centre Court. The American was about to serve for a two-set lead when rain stopped play on Tuesday evening, and he duly served it out in yesterday’s opening game.
Roddick then dropped serve in the third but recovered from 5-3 down, and then 5-0 down in the tie-break, to win 6-2 7-5 7-6 (8-6) and reach the last eight.
He will play Richard Gasquet, who beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4 6-3 6-4.
Describing his remarkable comeback in the third-set tie-break, Roddick said: “He doesn’t have a serve where he’s going to hit aces the whole time, so I never felt completely out of it.
“I know my serve can go in bunches so I was just concentrating on trying to get a point each time on his serve.”
And asked about the issue that is dominating The Championships, the weather, Roddick added: “It is what it is. The things that you love about Wimbledon, with the tradition of it, ended up making it tough this time.
“But I still love the tradition and I still love everything about it, the prestige, and that’s what makes the aura of it. Unfortunately it made it tougher, especially on Rafa’s side — maybe that’s why I’m sitting here saying it’s OK.”
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