The controversial call that left Nadal fuming

Rafa Nadal remonstrated with the chair umpire and commentators were left puzzled over a rule that continues to divide opinion in the tennis world.

After cruising through the first set in Friday night's semi-final clash with Grigor Dimitrov, Nadal was serving at 1-2 in the second.

DREAM FINAL: Nadal beats Dimitrov in epic five-setter

Down 0-30, Nadal took too long in between points and was hit with a time violation warning for exceeding the allowed 20 seconds.

The Spaniard was visibly fuming, looking at his player's box in bewilderment before arguing with the umpire.

While the call was technically correct, Jim Courier questioned the timing of it considering Nadal is regularly over the 20 seconds.

"(Umpire) Pasquale Maria — He is very consistent when he's calling a Rafael Nadal match that he nails Rafa at the most inconvenient times on time violations, because Nadal is very consistently over the 20 second mark," Courier said in commentary.

Pasquale Maria. Image: Getty

"Nadal will be forced to speed up, because the next time he gets warned for a time violation, he will lose a first serve and have to hit a second serve."

The warning clearly derailed Nadal's momentum, broken to love before dropping two more service games to lose the set 7-5.

He took it up with the official not long after in a rather passive-aggressive manner.

"I always have the same problems with the same umpires," he said.

The Spanish bull managed to put his frustrations aside to overcome Dimitrov in an epic five-setter, setting up a fairytale final with Roger Federer.

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