By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday February 25, 2025
VAR technology in tennis is fun. It’s also not quite predictable. Using a relatively new technology to rule over controversial moments can be enlightening, as it was today in Dubai, when Felix Auger-Aliassime used the technology to successfully overturn a point that he would have lost 99 times out of 100.
Watch below, as Auger-Alissime gets hindered by a rogue ballkid, who stretches out to grab a ball, not fully realizing that the Canadian has ranged back to make a last-ditch play on it.
When the 24-year-old calls for the review, it’s pretty clear that he was hindered. What is also clear is that he probably would have lost the point even if he hadn’t been hindered. But VAR is not there to make that type of decision, unfortunately. VAR is there to determine if he was indeed hindered.
Auger-Aliassime got to replay the point, which was won by Alexander Bublik with an underarm serve that went for an ace. Never mind, The World No.21 still went on to win the set, and the match, 7-6(7), 6-7(4), 6-3.
Umpire Miriam Bley ruled that there was a hindrance and that the point needed to be replayed, which leaves us wondering, could she have also made the decision that Auger-Aliassime was basically out of the point and had not shot to win it?
As we know in tennis, you never know, that’s why players always try to make their opponent hit one more shot. There’s no telling what type of magic Auger-Aliassime might have produced had he not been hindered. Therefore the point was replayed. It was a tough call for Bublik, but the right one. A case when VAR did its job, even if there is still some grey area.
Judging from the post-match handshake, the players had no problem with it when it was all said and done: