Drama erupted on match point at the Cincinnati Masters between Jack Draper and Felix Auger-Aliassime thanks to a shocking call by the chair umpire.
Down 4-5, 30-40 in the deciding set, Auger-Aliassime returned a serve which forced Draper to approach the net as the ball hit his racquet onto his side of the court and clipped the tape before bouncing over the Canadian's end.
Seen laughing in disbelief for the first few seconds after Draper was awarded the point and subsequently the match, Auger-Aliassime was enraged with the final decision as he approached the official and his opponent at the net for a lengthy conversation.
"That's horrendous. Did you not see the ball bounce on the floor?," Auger-Aliassime asked furiously to which the umpire replied, "Like after he hit it? I didn't see it. I did not see that. I saw it come off the frame and then went over." Auger-Aliassime pleaded his case further by arguing, "You're going to get out now, and it's going to be everywhere [viral]. You're going to look ridiculous. I'm serious, it's going to look ridiculous. It's going to be crazy. And it's not his [Draper's] place to make that call, it's match point for him, but it's your [umpire] place to make that call."
After listening to what his competitor had to say, Draper said to the world No.19, "Can I just say one thing? I was looking at you," as Auger-Aliassime responded, "It doesn't matter where you were looking. You've played enough to know when you hit it, you know where it went."
Shortly afterwards, the tournament supervisor spoke to the trio to discuss the decision, ultimately siding with the umpire which was met with a chorus of boos from the crowd.
The umpire at the centre of the controversy was Greg Allensworth, exactly two weeks after he defaulted Denis Shapovalov at the Washington Open for talking back to a spectator.
Australian coach Darren Cahill, now in Jannik Sinner's corner, called for a video review system to be implemented for non-line calls after watching the Auger-Aliassime and Draper incident unfold.
"Video challenge system please. We have it. Use it. Nice to see the US Open implementing the VR system on 8 of its match courts," Cahill wrote on X.
Former world No.3 Stefanos Tsitsipas shared footage of Draper on X hitting the ball into his own half of the court, writing: "I don't think I have ever seen a shot like this."
Comments