Tennis great Mats Wilander defends Rafael Nadal over Shapovalov’s claims of being favoured by umpires

Spanish legend Rafael Nadal recently won against Denis Shapovalov to reach the Australian Open semifinals. The match was very feisty and had a point of areas that can be discussed but recently the one that is making rounds on social media is Shapovalov’s claim of Nadal wasting time and getting away with it on the court by the chair umpire.

The Canadian had a conversation with the chair umpire raising his concern but then the two have a brief heated exchange of words where Shapovalov ended it by saying, ” Y’all are all corrupt.”

People on social media are divided as some think it was not a big issue for Shapovalov to create a scene while others feel that Nadal gets favoured due to his status.

Recently tennis great Mats Wilander defended Nadal in the whole Shapovalov preferential claim. The 20 time Grand Champion played out a stunning five-setter  6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 that lasted for over four hours.

Later in the post-match press conference, Shapovalov admitted that his choice of words were not great but he feels that Nadal 100% gets preference from the officials. Nadal on the other hand denied all the accusations.

Wilander recently commented on the situation and he feels that if Nadal gets special treatment from the officials that’s because he deserves it. “Rafa plays on Rod Laver Arena because he deserves to be there,” said Wilander. “And I don’t think there’s any way you are not going to give the great champions some slack at some points. It’s part of our sport a bit, it’s not fair.”

The seven-time Grand Slam winner feels that Shapovalov will get used to this after a while and should not think about these factors in any way.

“Rafa deserves a bit of that if it’s not fair, but Denis will realise that you need a bit more time,” Wilander added. “Denis most probably needs to go onto the court and think – ‘what will not make me irritated? That’s right, Rafa taking too long, that cannot interfere with my brain’.”

Nadal has now progressed to the semifinals of the Australian Open and he will face Italian tennis star Matteo Berrettini in the last four in a very exciting contest.