Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal of Spain and Roger Federer of Switzerland hug at the net, after Nadal won their men's singles semi-final match at the Australian Open 2014 tennis tournament in Melbourne Reuters

Roger Federer has recently criticised Rafael Nadal for using too much time during break and not getting penalised for it. Tennis Tonic, one of the leading tennis sites, conducted a poll asking fans if Federer was right in attacking the current world's no.1. Apparently, the result isn't surprising at all.

According to the latest poll update on the site, 76 per cent of the voters wanted Nadal to get penalised for breaching a very basic rule by committing overtime violations, while 24 per cent showed their support for the Mallorcan bull.

Federer was apparently fed up to see Nadal getting away without a point deduction each time he used too much time during injury breaks. During the Australian Open final match against Stanislas Wawrinka, Nadal also spent several minutes on the sideline as he tried to get some treatment on his injured back.

"Rafa is doing a much better job today than he used to. I'm not complaining much about the time. But I think I've played him, what, three times. He's gotten two point penalties over the course of our rivalry. I just think that's not quite happening," said Federer via Tennis Tonics.

"I mean, we know how much time he used to take. I'm not complaining about so many things. But either you have rules or you don't. If you don't have rules, it's fine. Everybody can do whatever they want to do," the Swiss added.

Federer stressed that rules should be observed properly in every tennis match, if not there's no reason to keep these regulations further.

"I just think it's important to enforce the rules on many levels, whatever it may be. On all the players the same way. Don't give me or Djokovic a free pass just because of who we are. I think we should all be judged the same way. Not just a guy on Court 16 because the guy had a brutal rally, you have to give him a time violation just because you can."

"On center court, they're always going to be afraid, the umpires, to take those decisions. I just like to challenge them a little bit. I just hope they do their job correctly. If they don't, what are you going to do? Sit and watch. Sometimes you just got to say things. I didn't lose the match because of that. It didn't bother me. I just felt I had to mention something," Federer pointed out.