Rafael Nadal's brilliant act of sportsmanship during Rogers Cup final victory
The headlines will be that Rafael Nadal won the Rogers Cup in Toronto, but it is not his performance that has drawn the most praise.
Nadal secured his 33rd Masters 1000 crown in Canada, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2 7-6 (7-4) on Sunday afternoon.
But during the game he showed brilliant sportsmanship and diffused a potentially awkward situation in the process.
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Just as Tsitsipas was serving during the second set, a spectator in the crowd screamed out, causing the 20-year-old to shank his serve wide of the mark.
The rules do not allow the chair umpire to replay a point due to interference from the crowd, meaning all the sitting umpire could do was apologise, despite Tsitsipas’ fury.
Somebody in the crowd screamed during Tsitsipas' service motion, but the rules don't allow an umpire to do anything about that, and Stefanos was getting nothing but an apology from the chair, so Rafa just went ahead and allowed him to replay the serve #sportsmanship pic.twitter.com/wMQQpFarO9
— TroubleFault (@troublefault) August 12, 2018
As Tsitsipas spoke with the umpire, only to be told there was nothing he could do, Nadal shouted over and insisted the point was replayed.
There was no need for Nadal to do so, especially in such a big final, yet he was happy to let Tsitsipas take his first serve again.
A fine display of sportsmanship and Nadal was rewarded with a victory.
