Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon opponent accused him of using "distracting" tactics

On Saturday, during the third set of their third round match Nadal summoned Sonego to the net and asked him to quit grunting on strokes. Sonego has just broken Nadal and was about to begin his own service game when Nadal’s actions “distracted” him, causing him to lose both his serve and the match.

“A player should not call his opponent on the net,” Sonego said afterwards. “You cannot do that at Wimbledon. “Nadal should have just had a word with the umpire. He distracted me.” To be fair, Rafael Nadal did not quarrel with that assessment, and he swiftly apologized after the match. Nadal, on the other hand, did not want to go into too much detail about what caused the whole situation.

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“Well, first of all, I have to say that I was wrong,” Nadal said. “I should not call him to the net. So apologize for that. My mistake in that. No problem. I recognize that. Then after that, all the stuff during the match that I don’t want to comment, because is something that I spoke with him in the locker room and it stays there. Only thing I can say is I saw him personally. I apologize for that. My intention was never to bother him at all. Just to tell one thing that was bothering me that I think he was doing in that moment, but that’s it.” said Nadal in the press conference.

Nadal delivered a Centre Court masterclass to advance to the fourth round of Wimbledon, defeating Italian Lorenzo Sonego 6-1 6-2 6-4, bringing him one step closer to an unprecedented 23rd Grand Slam. Unlike his previous two triumphs this week at SW19, where he lost a set against Francisco Cerundolo and Ricardas Berankis and was far from the entertainer we know he can be, the No.2 seed was ruthless on Saturday night. For the tenth time in his career, the two-time champion has advanced to the Wimbledon round of 16, where he will play Botic van de Zandschulp on Monday.