Rafael Nadal is currently representing Team Spain at the 2023 United Cup in Australia

Rafael Nadal has shared his harsh take on the format of the United Cup. It is a mixed-gender team tournament which is currently going on in Australia and is a kind of warm-up event leading to the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open. Nadal himself participated in the event, representing Team Spain but unfortunately lost both his singles matches to Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie and Australia’s Alex de Minaur.

Nadal was pretty critical of the tournament’s format in a recent interview. “But putting things in perspective that this competition I find a negative point, you know. Competition is great. Idea is great. It’s not great that today we are playing for nothing. I really believe it’s the first year of this competition, so that kind of things that need to fix, to improve, and to make it more interesting for everyone”, said the Spaniard. Nadal also suggested a few changes that could be made in the upcoming editions of the tournament. “I really believe that in a group of three, the loser of the first tie needs to play with the team that didn’t play yet, because that makes the competition much more interesting“, he stated.

Fans react to Rafael Nadal’s take on the United Cup format

Let us take a look at some of the reactions from fans on Twitter.

“He’s absolutely spot on , I can’t believe I was actually looking forward to the Spain-aus tie not knowing that Spain was already out”, wrote a fan who agrees with Nadal’s point of view.

“He is right. The format just sucks. No one wants to waste time playing for nothing. I’m sure they’ll change the format for next year”, tweeted another fan.

“Frankly I have no idea how the United Cup works and so far, I could care less. My suggestion- make it super simple, super competitive, single elimination most likely? Good luck”, read a tweet.

“Fancy Nadal to do a mean job at being a tournament manager/director/organiser in the future”, stated another fan.

Another fan wrote: “Whoever came up with this current format needs to be fired! Did they not think????”

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