Emmanuel LANGELLIER, Media365: published on Sunday July 03, 2022 at 11:03 a.m.
The meeting of the 3rd round of Wimbledon between Rafael Nadal and Lorenzo Sonego was marked by a reframing of the Spaniard towards the Italian, Saturday evening.
Saturday was a particularly lively day at Wimbledon at the end of the first week. While Alizé Cornet achieved a sensational feat by ejecting the world number 1 Iga Swiatek in the women’s tournament, Nick Kyrgios offered Stefanos Tsitsipas after an extremely tense meeting in the men’s draw at the end of the program. A little before, Rafael Nadal had easily won his ticket for the 8th finals at the expense of Lorenzo Sonego in 3 short sets (6-1, 6-2, 6-4). A match there also enamelled by an incident.
Nadal: ‘I made a mistake talking to him at the net at that time, and I apologized for it afterwards’
While he was quietly leading 2 sets to nothing and there was 4-4 in the 3rd game after leading 4-2, Nadal slipped a few words to his Italian opponent at the net. The world number 4 was annoyed by Sonego’s late celebrations after executed strikes. The 54th player in the world expressed his incomprehension and the two players exchanged again at the final handshake.
After his victory, Rafael Nadal admitted he was wrong and apologized. “I have to say that I made a mistake talking to him at the net at that time, and I apologized for it afterwards,” said the Spaniard. That was my mistake. And I didn’t want to bother him at all by doing that, it wasn’t my intention. But I found it amazing that he shouted like that, several times in this game, including once just before I played a volley. While he hadn’t done it in the game before. But when we spoke, there was no tension, it was a relaxed discussion. »
Sonego: ‘You can’t do that at Wimbledon’
Lorenzo Sonego regretted this episode and admitted having been “distracted” at the end of the match. “A player must not call his opponent to the net. You can’t do that at Wimbledon. Nadal should have had a word with the referee. So it distracted me,” explained the 27-year-old Italian. An opinion shared by Martina Navratilova, 9-time Wimbledon winner. “Rafa should have just talked to the referee. You don’t call your opponent to the net; this attitude does not resemble him. Especially since the episode seemed to destabilize Sonego who was broken directly behind, “said the former world number 1 on the BBC.
