On Thursday, the men’s tennis tour announced that they were amending the rules following of a review of an incident in Fritz’s match and another incident at last week’s Canadian Open. “ATP Officiating Update: After recent technical issues with Live ELC in Montreal and Cincinnati, we have conducted a thorough review of our protocols,” they wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter.)
“Going forward, if the Review Official determines during a rally that a ball was out earlier in the point (but was not called by the system), that decision will stand.”
The quick turnaround amused Fritz, who had suffered as a result of the ambiguity around the regulations with electronic line calling. “Thank god. If you hit a ball out then you lose the point…. Ground breaking stuff,” he replied, adding a laughing emoji.
The Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati does not use line judges and hawkeye challenges, instead implementing the automatic system. It means that, if a player hits a ball out, the technology should call it. But it failed to kick in when Brandon Nakashima sent the ball long during the second set of their match.
The rally continued for a few more shots before umpire Gregory Allensworth yelled “stop, stop!” to the players and called a let. He then radioed hawkeye officials to clarify what happened. The American No. 1 paced over to the chair to argue that he should have been awarded the point.
“Look how far the ball was out,” Fritz said. But the chair official explained that they continued to play and that he should have stopped the rally to review the ball mark.
Under the line judge and hawkeye challenge system, players must stop a point if they wish to challenge a ball that hasn’t been called by a linesperson. But Fritz argued that shouldn’t apply when the calls are supposed to be automatic.
He eventually continued playing and won the second set but Nakashima beat him 6-4 4-6 7-6(4). Fritz’s colleagues and rivals came out to defend him when videos of the incident emerged on social media.
“Ridiculous decision.. ball is out, point is over, point to Fritz. How is this not the outcome?” Daniil Medvedev wrote. Frances Tiafoe, who faced a simular situation at last week’s Masters 1000 in Canada, commented: “Bro this gotta get figured out this happen to me last week. Do better @atptour yall please do better.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk