RIO DE JANEIRO – Daniel Nestor was furious over what he believed were several missed calls that cost him and partner Vasek Pospisil in Thursday's semi-final doubles loss to the Spanish team of Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez.

“I mean, you saw it. If you watched the match you saw horrible calls,” said Nestor, who at 43 is almost certainly competing in his sixth and final Olympics. “One in the first set came at a critical time [with Canada serving up 3-1] and it could've made a difference.”

After the match, the on-court microphones picked up the usually mild-mannered Nestor airing his displeasure with chair umpire Emmanuel Joseph of France. “I'll shake your hand, but that was a disgrace,” Nestor said.

With Wednesday's matches washed out due to rain, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is scrambling to get back on schedule. The decision was made to play a semi-final match, featuring one of the game's all-time greats in Nadal, on Court 3, the fourth biggest court at the Olympic Tennis Center in Rio.

“We were not happy at all to play on that court,” said Nadal, who also won a singles match earlier in the day. "We were talking with the ITF before the match to try to change the court, but they decided to maintain the court. For such an important match for all of us to play on a court with no challenges is something that's not fair. It was a bad decision from them."

Nestor and Nadal agreed on that point, but it didn't make Thursday's result any easier to swallow.

“If we would've played on a bigger court we would've gotten instant replay and that would've worked against them, so he should feel fortunate that we played on that court considering what happened,” Nestor fumed. “We play at Indian Wells with 10 show courts with instant replay and we play here with two.”

The match was as close as it can get with the Spaniards winning a pair of tiebreaks. Despite the controversial calls, both Canadians did admit Lopez and Nadal played well enough to win.

“They played a great match,” Nestor said. “They were the better team but, then again, you never know what would've happened if the calls were different.”

“They just played the big points a little better than we did,” Pospisil acknowledged. "It was tough conditions out there and that definitely wasn't in our favour. It was very windy and slow and that made it tough when we're two at the net and they're two back. But, honestly, can't take much away from them. They played a great match.”

The Canadian duo won't have much time to recover. They're scheduled to face Americans Jack Sock and Steve Johnson for the bronze medal on Friday.

“We'll regroup. There won't be any issues with that,” Pospisil insisted.

Canada’s only medal in Olympic tennis came back in 2000 in Sydney when Nestor partnered with Sébastien Lareau to win gold.

“We came here to win a medal, not bronze, but we're going to fight really hard to get it and hopefully we get it,” Nestor said. “It's important for us and for Canada.”