Rafael Nadal and his old ways continued at his bastion French Open on Monday when he made light work of Jannik Sinner in a straight-set win in the fourth-round 7-5, 6-3, 6-0. While the victory seems effortless, the veteran 20-time Grand Slam champion did address one of his grievances with the organisers during the post-match press conference.
"I don't know why they put them on so soon," said Nadal, who was not happy with the newly-introduced floodlights being on so early in his match as he felt enough daylight was there during his game, which went past 9 PM local time (sunset time in Paris on Monday was 9:51 PM). The 13-time Roland Garros champion felt the floodlights distracted him. He also tried to reason with the chair umpire during the match but didn't seem convinced with the argument given to him.
"They were bothering me. I asked the referee and he told me that they were on for TV (difficult for cameras to shoot in low lighting)," Nadal recalled at the conference.
Nadal reasoned that this wasn't the first time that he played a match at the tournament beyond 9 PM.
"Before we played until nine o'clock without having to put on a light and (matches) were also on TV."
