There was chaos at the Rod Laver Arena on Thursday while Rafael Nadal was playing American Michael Mmoh in the evening match of the day when a fan interrupted Nadal's serve and showed him a middle finger. Nadal had taken the first set 6-1 with absolute ease and at 5-4 up, he was set to serve for the match when the lady began making noise, which delayed Nadal's serve.
With the noise not stopping, Nadal looked into the crowd asking for the noise to stop when the lady just showed a middle finger to him. A shocked Nadal laughed lightly and asked, "What? Me?"
A fan just gave Rafa the finger. Look at his reaction: “what, me? “ 😂 pic.twitter.com/fY3npCNTrn— Tennis GIFs 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) February 11, 2021
The crowd booed the woman and seemed like she also riled up Nadal as he served up an ace just after that incident.
However, the woman did not stop there and kept uttering something or the other, interrupting the play further. At this point, a woman from security came asking her to leave.
At this point, Nadal began to smile awkwardly and even had a laugh or two with the chaos that was set in the stadium. The crowd, which was silently watching Nadal roll also got into action cheering the Spaniard.
Nadal then gestured towards the chair umpire that he can serve and looked at Mmoh with a 'let's start' look. Then as Nadal was about to serve, three security persons made the woman leave the arena and Nadal served up a couple of more aces to seal the second set and take a 2-0 lead in the Round 2 match.
Nadal eased past Mmoh 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in just an hour and 47 minutes.
After the match in the on-court interview, he was laughingly asked if knew the lady. Nadal responded to that with, "No and honestly, I don't want to know (laughed)."