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HomeSportsTennisCincinnati Open star sparks social media backlash after 'insane' umpire call

Cincinnati Open star sparks social media backlash after ‘insane’ umpire call

Controversy reigned at the Cincinnati Open after Taylor Fritz was involved in a furious exchange with the umpire, prompting outrage from fans and fellow tennis pros backing the American.

Fritz was playing Brandon Nakashima in the first round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in a tight encounter, with the latter taking the first set 6-4 and trailing 3-2 on serve in the second.

But the match descended into farcical territory when one of Nakashima’s shots bounced beyond the baseline by a clear margin. Despite that, Hawkeye’s electronic line judge didn’t call the ball out and play continued.

However, the umpire Gregory Allensworth yelled “stop, stop!” to the players and the action was brought to a halt. Allensworth radioed into the Hawkeye officials on his walkie talkie to ask for an explanation.

Meanwhile, a seething Fritz demanded to know why the point was stopped when the ball was “far out”. The umpire explained that play hadn’t been stopped in time, as Fritz and Nakashima played “six or seven shots more”.

Fritz protested, telling the umpire “I stopped”, but the official disagreed and said play would’ve stopped if Fritz had halted. Replays showed that Fritz did momentarily pause and glance in the direction of the umpire before carrying on.

The frustrated world No 12 then became agitated and told the umpire: “Don’t tell me that I need to stop the point when we have electronic line calling.”

The umpire replied: “I know but that’s how it works, you could have stopped the point and we could have looked at it then.”

Fritz continued to argue and said: “But why didn’t you stop it? You’re in the chair, you saw that ball it was like a foot out.”

Unfortunately for Fritz, it was then announced over the tannoy that “due to a technical error, the point will be replayed”, at which point loud boos emanated from the crowd.

Several tennis players joined together to support Fritz’s complaint, with Daniil Medvedev labelling the decision to replay the point “ridiculous”.

“Ridiculous decision… ball is out, point is over, point to Fritz. How was this not the outcome?” the Russian commented on Instagram below a video clip of the point.

Another player, Alex Michelsen, echoed his words and said: “Ball was out why we replaying the point? [two cry-laughing emojis].”

Denis Shapovalov, who was recently defaulted during an ATP Tour match at the Washington Open, stood with Fritz: “If you would have stopped the point [facepalm, cry-laughing emoji]. I can’t anymore,” he said.

To his credit, Fritz put the incident to the back of his mind to win the set and earn a decider, but the 26-year-old was beaten 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4) after a nailbiting tiebreak.

Content Source: www.express.co.uk

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