‘I don’t like that!’ – Kim Clijsters and Alex Corretja defend Rafael Nadal over service criticism at 2022 US Open

Eurosport tennis experts Kim Clijsters and Alex Corretja have defended Rafael Nadal from criticisms over the length of time of his service games.

Over the years it has been pointed out that Nadal seems to take far longer to serve than most players, even with the serve clock now in action.

John McEnroe said earlier this year he believes Nadal “gets away with more” because he is such a great player, and he suggested the same on commentary during Nadal’s first-round US Open win over Rinky Hijikata.

Talking on the Eurosport pre-show ahead of the play on Wednesday both Clijsters and Corretja sideded with Nadal.

“It’s a joke,” said four-time Grand Slam champion Clijsters.

Former world No. 2 Corretja added: “The thing is, I’d love to be Rafa Nadal for a minute of my life – those passing shots at the end of the match…

“Secondly, it was a great set up for him, and about this [towel incident], even Rafa was listening to the journalist like, ‘Are you serious? You’re telling me this?’

“What I hate is when [journalists] come to you and they say ‘someone said that they said…’ Be straight. This is poor. You’ve got to be straight if you make a statement – ‘I heard from John McEnroe..’ I don’t like that. For sure Rafa is playing with the rules, but umpires have the clock so that’s it.”

Former world No. 7 Barbara Schett made the point that the new rules say that players have to get their own towels, which can cause problems.

“And do you know one thing that would be nice? If the ball kids were handing over the towels – then we wouldn’t have this discussion anymore,” Schett said.

“I know the towels are 10 metres away!” replied Clijsters.

Schett agreed: “I know. You always have to sprint to get those towels.”

The trio then moved to talk about the performance of Nadal on the court. Clijsters was full of praise for the way Hijikata attacked the game but added she didn’t think Nadal was ever worried.

“[It was] incredible tennis from [Hijikata] early on but no stress on Rafa’s side. He knows his opponents have to win three sets to beat him and he’s very strong when it comes to that.”

After analysing the time Nadal took on the serve, Corretja moved on to looking at Nadal’s serve itself.

“You know when you suffer from the abdominal [muscle], and I did a lot – I suffered from the left one and Rafa suffers from the right one – you don’t want to stretch as much because you are afraid to get hurt again.

“So what you do is you toss the ball a little bit lower and you use your arm much more instead of the whole body. You don’t create as much power – it’s a little bit worse for your service motion and then it affects the way you move afterwards. To serve 100 percent and then to go is not that easy.

“For Rafa it took a little while to understand his serve and then the opponent’s, who was playing very good tennis. But I have to say it was the perfect preparation for him. Four sets – he didn’t play in the summer, so I’m happy with that performance from Rafa.”

Clijsters added that she believes Nadal’s movement is the key to his game.

“He’s maybe not the fastest server but with that first shot off the point it’s so important to get yourself in a dominant situation early on and when that is not the case it takes time to adjust – even for somebody like Rafa, to just get a feel for that.

“If you see that match point – that runner forehand down the line – there’s nobody else who can do that. Even at this stage of his career – we’ve talked about it many, many times already – that he’s able to adjust and put himself through these injuries, with his foot and now the abdominal, it’s incredible to see the lengths he goes to keep improving.”

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