Screenshot of foreign media reports
On January 25, Beijing time, according to Tennishead, after the 2022 Australian Open men's singles quarter-final, Dennis Shapovalov and Rafa Nadal engaged in a war of words - the young Canadian accused the referee of giving the Spaniard "preferential treatment", while the king of clay responded directly that "he was wrong".
During the game, Shapovalov thought that Nadal's time between 2 points was too loose, so he took the initiative to confront the referee, and even shouted "You guys are corrupt when the referee ignores it!" (you guys are all corrupt!)”
After a five-set tie and a 2-3 loss to Nadal, the Canadian teenager did retract those particular words in his post-match press conference, but he still stood by his allegations.
Nadal in the game
"I think when I say he's corrupt, I'm saying the wrong thing." Shapovalov explained.
"It was definitely emotional, but I did hold my point. I think it's unfair that Rafa [Nadal] escaped so much punishment. ”
"To me, that's a big joke."
"It's like, where's the bottom line?"
'I respect everything Rafa has done and I think he's an incredible player.
"But there has to be some boundaries. As a player, it's really frustrating. ”
"You feel like, you're not just playing against the players, you're still playing against the referees, you're playing against more people."
Asked if Nadal had been given preferential treatment, Shapovalov replied bluntly: "He got 100 percent." ”
After learning about their opponents' remarks at their own press conference, the 20-time Grand Slam winner said: "I really believe, people always think that the top players will get a bigger advantage, and honestly, on the pitch, that's not true. ”
"That's how I feel. I never felt that I had an advantage on the pitch and I really believed that in that matter, he was wrong. ”
"In the last few years, we've had a clock and we've added measures to make things fairer for everyone."