Rafael Nadal has fired a parting shot at Ashleigh Barty, reminding the tennis world where Australia’s world No.1 stands in the grand slam pecking order.
Despite her status, the French Open champion played only one of her four Wimbledon matches on Centre Court this year.
Barty was even shunted to Court 2, the third-ranked court at the All England Club, for two rounds – including Monday’s loss to American Alison Riske.
Rafael Nadal (pictured) has fired a parting shot at Ashleigh Barty, reminding the tennis world where Australia’s world No.1 stands in the grand slam pecking order
Barty (pictured) was even shunted to Court 2, the third-ranked court at the All England Club, for two rounds – including Monday’s loss to American Alison Riske
The thrilling Barty-Riske three-setter lasted only eight minutes less than Nadal’s straight-sets drubbing of Joao Sousa, prompting a journalist to ask the Spaniard if the more competitive women’s encounter featuring the world No.1 might have been better off staged on Centre Court instead of his mismatch.
‘I am the world No. 2 and I won 18 grand slams,’ Nadal said.
Grilled on whether that meant no to the initial question, Nadal said: ‘My answer is not no or yes.’
‘My answer is they make a decision. You are putting Ashleigh Barty in front of me. For me, both decisions are good.
‘In the world of tennis today, honestly, my feeling is today I am little bit more than Ashleigh Barty, even if Ashleigh Barty is the first player of the world and she already won in the French Open and she is playing unbelievable good.
‘But we can’t create polemics every single day about decisions that they have to take. At the end of the day they have to make a decision.
‘A day like today, everybody is playing, of course Djokovic is not playing in the Centre Court.
‘For me the first day I have been playing in the Court 1. I played in Suzanne Lenglen in Roland Garros, if I’m not wrong, in the second round.
‘Every day is a decision. We cannot create polemics about that.
Barty (left) shakes hands with Alison Riske of the U.S. after their fourth round match
‘Court No. 2, okay, they have to make decisions. Today they probably decided that. They have another girls playing on the Centre Court now.’
Barty typically wasn’t fussed about where she played on, sticking to her party line that all courts at Wimbledon were beautiful.
‘Scheduling is out of my control,’ she said.
‘I’ll play on any court I’m scheduled on.’
The Australian star offered no excuses after her grand slam run came to a shuddering halt with a deflating fourth-round Wimbledon exit.
Bidding to become the first Australian woman to make the quarter-finals at the All England Club since Jelena Dokic 19 years ago, Barty fell 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Monday to free-swinging American Alison Riske.
‘Absolutely no regrets. We’ve planned our days and prepared as best that we can. Today wasn’t my day,’ Barty said after the match.
‘I didn’t win a tennis match. It’s not the end of the world. It’s a game. I love playing the game. I do everything in my power to try and win every single tennis match. But that’s not the case.
‘It’s disappointing right now. Give me an hour or so, we’ll be all good. The sun’s still going to come up tomorrow… Overall I didn’t play a poor match.
‘When I needed to, when the big moments were there, Alison played better today. Tough one to swallow but I lost to a better player.’
Barty will also lose the world No.1 ranking to Karolina Pliskova if the third-seeded Czech reaches the semi-finals this week.
‘It’s out of my control,’ the Queenslander said.
Barty (pictured with boyfriend Garry Kissick) was hoping to become the first Australian woman to make the quarter-finals at the All England Club since Jelena Dokic 19 years ago
‘We’ve done absolutely everything. I’m so proud of myself and my team over the last six to eight weeks. We’ve had an incredible trip, incredible couple of months.
‘If Karolina plays some good tennis, gets to that, then she’ll deserve it. No fighting that.’
Meanwhile, Barty revealed how she’d been playing with reporters during her previous three press conferences by making references to Disney films.
After defeating British wildcard Harriet Dart in her centre-court debut as world number one, Barty made a reference to Under The Sea – the song from The Little Mermaid.
‘I think for me sometimes I look at a shot, I play a shot, I think the seaweed is always greener in someone else’s lake,’ she said. ‘I try and think of how else I can win the point.’
Riske exerted more pressure on her rival with some strong ground strokes in the deciding set
The Australian previously referenced The Lion King and Toy Story while talking to the world’s media at Wimbledon.
She said after her round one win: ‘We kind of came into it thinking like Hakuna Matata,’ before revealing at yet another press conference: ‘I chat to my niece and over and over she just tells me, ”you can go to infinity and beyond”.’
After her defeat on Monday, Barty revealed the reason for the Disney references.
‘It’s brought a bit of interest, hasn’t it? It was a way for us to enjoy it and try to bring a little bit more energy in the press. I love Disney. I watch it all the time.
‘Look, it’s been a bit of fun for all of us. You guys caught on I think the third time around. It’s been a bit of fun.’
An upset looked remote when Barty fired down four aces to start the match before taking the opening set in 32 minutes.
Riske was unfazed, calmly working her way into the contest with some fearless hitting from the baseline.
Piling the pressure on Barty with sustained attack and measured forays to the net, Riske broke Barty twice to seize the second set to make a fool of her ranking of No.55 in the world.
Staving off a break point in the fourth game of the deciding set, Riske nabbed another crucial break with a massive forehand winner to surge ahead 5-3, before retaining her poise to clinch a shock victory after one hour and 37 minutes.
‘You just have to look at her stats on a grass court to show just how dangerous she is. She’s very comfortable on the grass court. It complements her game well,’ Barty said.
Barty said she believed she played a good game and had ‘Absolutely no regrets’ about the loss
‘In the crunch moments, she came up with her best tennis. When her back is against the wall, she plays really well typically. She did that today. All credit to her.
‘She deserves to be in the quarter-finals.’
The American’s maiden quarter-final will be against 23-times grand slam champion and seven-times Wimbledon winner Serena Williams, a 6-2 6-2 winner over Spanish veteran Carla Suarez Navarro.
‘Bring it on,’ Riske said.
Barty will return to Brisbane for a well-earned rest before beginning her American hardcourt campaign in Montreal from August 5.
‘It’s also important to really celebrate what we’ve been able to achieve over the last eight weeks. It’s been an extremely positive time for me and my team,’ she said.
‘Go and rest and recover with the family back home, then switch focus back to the hard courts.
‘In the US, which I love that time of year, I love getting back over to the summertime there.
‘I have some really good memories from last year. We go back, we knuckle down, train again, then we go again.’
Barty also revealed how she’d been playing with reporters during her previous three press conferences by making references to Disney films