Rafael Nadal has made it clear that he indeed had asked the French Open organizing committee to ensure that Carlos Bernardes was not named to officiate in any of his matches in the tournament.
Bernardes has been one of the experienced chair umpires going around and there have not been too many players who have put question marks on his decisions, but, Nadal has had a few issues with him off late and that’s why, he did not want to play with him in charge.
There have been mixed reactions coming from the experts and the other players on Nadal making such a request.
Some believe it’s not up to Nadal to decide who should be officiating which games and thus, what he did was probably unfair, while, there are others who are of the view that if he had been having constant issues with the same official, there was no harm in requesting the organizing committee to give the charge to someone else as far as his games are concerned.
One of Nadal’s arch rivals, Novak Djokovic, did not like it though and he expressed his views in the media conference the other day.
In the words of Djokovic, “I have also been unhappy with some of the umpiring decisions in the past, but, not even on one occasion did I try to get a particular umpire being removed. In my opinion, it’s not right.”
Nadal, of course, had his own point to make when he was asked about it by the reporters.
The 10-time French Open Champion said, “I requested for him to be kept away yes. I respect Carlos as a match official and as a human being, but, for some reason, the two of us have not got on that well.”