Tennis

Rafael Nadal Impresses Serena Williams With Bitterness, Butt

Sure, Rafael Nadal looks happy here. He looks happy throughout this whole thing. Hey, maybe he’s just a pretty happy guy in general. Just don’t mistake that general congeniality for a lack of fire within. Nadal’s opponents on the tennis court know all about that fire, and today, after Nadal was upset with playing conditions at the U.S. Open (play was halted shortly after it began), it sounds like tennis officials got an up-close look at it, too:

It’s the same old thing,” Nadal was quoted by ESPN’s Pam Shriver as telling a tournament referee inspecting the Arthur Ashe Stadium court. “All you think about is the money.”

Shriver also described Nadal as “venomous” – not an attitude we’d generally associate with him. But clearly in this case, it applied:

“We don’t feel protected. We don’t feel protected by the tournament. Grand Slams are worth a lot of money and we are part of the show. They are just working for that, not for us.”

We haven’t heard anythong this harsh from Rafa since back when he hated Robin Soderling. We’re impressed, though, with Rafa’s candor, and we’re not the only ones: Serena Williams seemed to like it, too. And, um, that’s not the only thing of Rafa’s she likes:

Preach @RafaelNadal preach! My Fellow Booty Brother!!! #gobigbutts lol

If by some chance you need a refresher on exactly what kind of an expert Serena is on big butts, allow us to help with that here. And here. And here. You get the idea. The point is, Serena may actually know even more about this topic than she does about tennis. So while we can’t say we’ve ever taken note of this particular aspect of Rafa ourselves, we’ll defer to Serena’s judgment…and only hope that one day we ourselves may possess an impressive enough backside to earn her respect.