Australian Open 2014: After losing, Roger Federer criticizes Rafael Nadal's grunting and slow play

Roger Federer

After being outclassed by his legendary rival in the Australian Open semifinal today, Roger Federer hit out at Rafael Nadal for his grunting and slow pace of play.

The normally ice-cool Swiss vocally complained to the umpire during the match about the fact that Nadal wasn’t being given any time violations despite taking more than the permissible amount of time between points. He was also seemingly bothered by the Spaniard’s customary ball-striking grunt.

Federer crashed to his 7th consecutive Grand Slam defeat to Nadal – that too in straight sets – in Melbourne, and after the match revealed that he found Nadal’s grunt distracting, as he had been making that noise during some points and not in all of them.

Federer couldn’t hide his disappointment after losing for the 23rd time against Nadal, in an unexpectedly one-sided match that ended 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-3 in favour of the Spaniard.

“It goes in phases. One point he does and he doesn’t. That’s just what I was complaining about,” Federer said. “Had no impact on the outcome of the match,” he added.

He also said that while Nadal, who is often deliberately slow to serve, should ideally have been booked for time violations several times in their 33-match rivalry, he had only been booked on two occasions.

“Rafa is doing a much better job today than he used to. I mean, I’m not complaining much about the time. But I think I’ve played him, what, 33 or 34 times. He’s gotten two point penalties over the course of our rivalry. I just think that’s not quite happening. I mean, we know how much time he used to take.

“I’m not complaining about so many things. But, I mean, either you have rules or you don’t. If you don’t have rules, it’s fine. Everybody can do whatever they want to do.”

He added: “I didn’t lose the match because of that. It didn’t bother me. I just felt I had to mention something.”

Nadal expressed surprise when told about Federer’s words with the umpire, and insisted that nobody had ever complained about his grunting before.

“I really didn’t know that. When I am playing, when I am hitting the ball during the point, the last thing that I am thinking is trying to bother the opponent,” he said.

“The only thing that I am focusing on is trying to hit my ball well. That’s it.

“I am sorry if I bothered somebody, but I never did in the past. So is something that nobody in my career, you know, told me nothing about this, that I am bothering the opponent.

“But if I bothered him in any moment, he knows 100 percent it was not because I wanted to. I never do anything on the court to bother the opponent. I think I did the normal things that I do in every match.”