Rafael Nadal wades into ATP row after Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic comments

Rafael Nadal has joined Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in calling Justin Gimelstob’s decision to step down from the ATP board as the right resolution. The American was sentenced following assault charges. Gimelstob pleaded no contest and was given three years’ probation and 60 hours of community service by a Los Angeles court In his first media briefing in over a month, Federer said Gimelstob had to leave and added: “In light of the Justin situation, I think it’s definitely the right move by Justin. He needs to go back and figure things out. There is no doubt about that. And the Tour needs to keep moving forward in these challenging times and important times right now." Nadal was asked for his view on Gimelstob’s departure and the Spaniard said that while he didn’t want to add further fuel to an issue which has dominated men’s tennis, the right decision was made. He said: “I just believe that we don’t need to add more things about the problem I don’t think or speak public or in the press about this stuff. It is a positive thing for our sport. So that’s why I didn’t want to answer or I didn’t want to express my opinion in the press when I have been asked in Barcelona, that’s all. I think the last couple of months have been a lot of things going on in our sport, so I don’t want to create more stories or more negative stories about our sport. We have a great sport and what we all want is to keep having a great sport and speak only about the negative things in our sport is something that probably is not my job and is something that I don’t want. Things that need to be fixed needs to be fixed internally. And Justin did what he had to do, in my opinion. It’s good that he didn’t put the players in a position that we have to, or the council guys have to vote against or in his favour. In my opinion, that situation is good what happened.”

Novak Djokovic backs big asset Justin Gimelstob’s wise decision to step down