Rafael Nadal questions Wimbledon officials' decision after Roger Federer gets Centre Court nod

Rafael Nadal apologised to his supporters on Wimbledon's Court One after his shock fourth round defeat to Gilles Muller on Monday (10 July). And, apart from his disappointment of losing, he also addressed the tournament officials' decision to move him to Court One and give the nod to Roger Federer to play on Centre Court.

The Spaniard was one of the pre-tournament favourites to make it to the latter stages, admitted that he put all his effort into the game, which ended 15-13 in favour of the Luxembourg's 16th seed in the fifth set. Nadal's loss is unlikely to overshadow his strong first-half of the campaign, which saw him play in seven finals and pick up four titles, including a 15<sup>th Grand Slam title at the French Open.

"Great feeling. Great atmosphere. I put everything on the court. I played with all my passion," Nadal said after his loss, as quoted by NDTV "The crowd normally appreciate that. Sorry for the crowd that were supporting me."

Apart from his defeat, Nadal was unhappy about the tournament officials' decision to move him to Court One for his fourth round clash to accommodate Roger Federer on Centre Court and admitted that they should distribute matches in the main court evenly rather than always choose the same players.

The 31-year-old, however, made it clear that his statements are no indication about his future participation at SW19 and vowed to make a comeback as he desires to play many more matches on Centre Court.

"I never said I not going to come back. Yeah, I want to come back because I want to play more times in the Centre Court," Nadal added, as quoted on Sport360.

"I like playing more on Centre Court. Someone has to play on Centre, and it's almost always the same players here. This is the reality. Here, there are many of us who have won a lot in our careers, who have a lot of important history behind us.

"A tournament that wants to be as traditional and as special as Wimbledon has to distribute the number of matches scheduled on Centre Court and that not always the same people play there, and when there are doubts, the others are sent to other courts," the Spaniard said.