By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday August 16, 2024
Felix Auger-Aliassime got a rough call when this Jack Draper volleyed was allowed to pass for a winner on match point on Friday in Cincinnati.
Photo Source: TTV
By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday August 16, 2024
What’s with all the controversies this week in Cincinnati?
Earlier in the week, Taylor Fritz was robbed of a point when electronic line-calling failed to make a call on a ball during his first-round loss to Brandon Nakashima (6-4 4-6 7-6(4)).
The system had the call right, but due to a glitch, the audio call never made it to the court and therefore the play continued until a call came from the truck to the umpire’s chair a few strokes later. When umpire Greg Allensworth was told of the call, he followed protocol and ruled that the point be replayed.
It was Allensworth again on Friday night when the conclusion of Jack Draper’s 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 win over Felix Auger-Aliassime went weird.
Draper, serving at 5-4, 40-30 in the third set, volleyed a ball into the court and when it hopped up and trickled over the net cord for a winner, Allensworth ruled that the ball was a winner. The umpire can’t be faulted for not seeing that the shot hit the ground with his naked eye. But we can fault the sport of tennis for lagging behind on implementing video review into critical moments of matches. This was a perfect moment for a two-second glance at a tablet, which would have given Auger-Aliassime the point and enabled the players to continue the match without incident.
Instead the pair debated the point for five minutes at the net, with Allensworth unable to change his call because replays were not forthcoming, and even if he had them he would not be permitted to use them.
Credit to Auger-Aliassime, who was laughing about the impossibility of Draper’s shot, and Draper, who didn’t know what happened with his volley but said that if he was shown a replay he’d be happy to continue the match.
After a brief interlude with the supervisor, Draper and Auger-Aliassime, with no solution – or replay – in sight, eventually shook hands and then the Canadian’s warning came true.
During his debate at the net he warned Allensworth that he was going to go back to the locker room and look at the call and recognize that he was very wrong. He was. And he is likely doing that now.
Even Stefanos Tsitsipas couldn’t believe it. The Greek took to Twitter to post a video of the volley, which makes it clear just how simple it could have been to change the call via VAR:
Draper gets the win, and the tennis tours get yet another urgent call for video review technology. Thankfully for US Open fans, the technology will be in place at this year’s Open. But the Open is the only tournament that has paid for and implemented the technology. So their success will only make the need seem more glaring for the rest of the tour during the other weeks of the season.