Rafael Nadal ‘should be punished’ for breaking crucial French Open rule during final
RAFAEL NADAL should have been punished for breaking a crucial rule during the French Open final, claims Greg Rusedski and Annabel Croft.
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Nadal won his 11th French Open title by comfortably beating Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
Dduring the third set the world No 1 twice called for the physio to come and attend to his wrist problem.
However, Nadal has since claimed that the issue was down to cramp - but tournament rules prevent players from having treatment for that issue.
“This is quite extraordinary,” Rusedski told Eurosport.
“He stops the point and he is allowed to have a medical time-out to diagnose it, but he is not allowed to have treatment for cramping.
This is very contentious because he should probably have got a time violation after the assessment
“Earlier in the tournament during [Robin] Haase against [David] Goffin they said ‘no you’re not allowed any treatment, you have got to get on and play with it’.
“So this is very contentious because he should probably have got a time violation after the assessment and they need to figure out what the rules are there.”
Croft added that Nadal will now have to fully explain himself for breaking the rule.
“You could almost see the hand start cramping up as the fingers go stiff - it’s a horrible feeling,” Croft said.
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“Maybe he was thinking 'I need to get this tape off, I need an assessment'.
“What I was really shocked at was that he told us it was cramp in the interview afterwards and then he had treatment for it.
“I know he will have a lot of questions about that in the press conference because you are not meant to have treatment for cramp.”