Felix Auger-Aliassime has broken his silence after crashing out of the Cincinnati Open on a contentious match point.
The world No. 19 lost to Britain’s Jack Draper in the round of 16 and thought his opponent shanked a drop shot while serving for the win. Auger-Aliassime eventually gave in after a lengthy discussion at the net.
The ATP’s Tennis TV later branded it “the most controversial match point ever”.
Draper served for a spot in the Cincinnati Open quarter-final at 5-4 in the third set. Leading 40-30, the British No. 1 picked up the ball for a drop shot. But it appeared that he hit it into the ground before it bounced over the net.
Both players momentarily paused but Draper started to celebrate and chair umpire Greg Allensworth said it was a legal shot. The players convened at the net and Auger-Aliassime continued to argue that it was a shank. Draper offered to replay the point if he was told that the ball did bounce. But with no video review technology available to officials on the court, it wasn’t possible.
Auger-Aliassime eventually shook hands with the 22-year-old and accepted the defeat. Two days later, he has now addressed the incident with an Instagram post. “Unfortunate ending of my tournament here in Cincinnati but I hope we find a way to deal with these situations in a more objective way going forward,” he wrote.
“That being said, I’m still encouraged by the level I played this week leading into the last Grand Slam of the year. Time to move on and focus on my preparation for the US Open See you in NY.”
Auger-Aliassime has been praised for how he handled the tricky incident, with fans and prominent figures in the tennis world highlighting his calm approach. Before shaking hands with Draper, the 24-year-old approached the umpire and said: “I’m going to ask you one last time, if you’re 100 per cent sure that you’re not going to leave here and that you have no doubt, not one ounce of doubt in yourself that that was a clean volley winner, and if you tell me yes, I’ll shake his hand and the match will be over.
The incident has prompted calls for VAR technology to be used in tennis. Novak Djokovic interrupted his post-Olympics celebrations to weigh in on social media. He wrote: “It’s embarrassing that we don’t have video replay of these kind of situations on the court. What’s even more ridiculous is that we don’t have the rule in place that would allow chair umpires to change the original call based on the video review that happens off the court!
“Everyone who watches TV sees what happened on the replay, yet the players on the court are kept in “dark” not knowing what’s the outcome. We have Hawkeye for line calls, we live in the technologically advanced 21st century! Please respective Tours, make sure this nonsense never happens again!”
The divisive match point even caught the attention of American rapper Pusha T, who sided with Auger-Aliassime and seemingly took aim at Draper. “Yes @felixtennis you were robbed…great way to keep your composure. A bad call can be innocent, but lying and not being accountable for a missed shot knowing the world is going to replay this is a huge character flaw. #DoBetter,” he tweeted.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk