One of the most controversial finishes in recent tennis history occurred in the match between Jack Draper and Felix Auger-Aliassime in round three of the Western & Southern Open on Friday night.
With Draper serving at 5-4, 40-30 in the third set, he appeared to convert match point with a winning volley off the net cord. However, the replay–only showed on television and not actually used on site to review calls–showed that the ball bounced off Draper’s side of the court before going over the net. Thus Auger-Aliassime should have won the point to reach deuce on his opponent’s serve. Instead, it was game, set, and match in Draper’s favor.
Other players were not happy about the blatant error, with chair umpire Greg Allensworth drawing much of their ire. The fact that video review is not being used to help with such calls also isn’t sitting well with the tour.
“It’s embarrassing that we don’t have video replay of these kind of situations on the court,” Novak Djokovic posted on Twitter. “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!”
Lucas Pouille (translated from French): “It’s a shame. How can such blatant mistakes still be made.. the referee who says that after the match he will admit to having made a mistake, we don’t care.. it’s too late, the match will be over.. when will the @atptour move forward??”
Vasek Pospisil: “This is pretty horrendous on so many levels.. but I have to say, not sure how many players would have handled this situation with such class. So impressive from Felix. Gotta feel for him”.
Andy Roddick: “I feel like every time I’ve ever shanked a ball straight into the ground, I’ve known that I shanked it straight into the ground…. Also if you have the tech, just get the call right ……. Takes longer to argue about it”.
Meanwhile, UTS Chief Operating Officer Baptiste Kern announced on his LinkedIn account that the upcoming event in New York will implement VAR. The U.S. Open will also use VAR on eight televised courts.
absurd scenes
Draper didn’t know whether he hit it into the ground first or not and even said he would replay the point. It was touch and go and the people claiming he must’ve known are full of shit. Eve the look on Draper’s face suggested he didn’t know.
FAA was 90% chance of losing the match in this service game anyway. its not he was serving to level up. Get over it.
being willing to replay the point isn’t being a good sport
he literally LOST the point. If they used the video, Draper wouldn’t have even been allowed to replay it. He would have lost it.
I get it – tennis is boring right now and you need something, anything to make it a bit more interesting.
“It’s not like he was serving”
Djokovic posted on twitter that we should have video replays for these type of situations like he was the first to suggest it. People have been saying this for over 10 years bud.
Please someone post a news article that Djokovic was not the first to suggest it. It nauseating listening to him post like he knows something others dont 10 years after it was first mentioned.
I reckon more matches are determined by the following: talking to your box, swearing in another language at the back or the court, changing the colour of your shirt, having toilet breaks, injury timeouts, making noises during the point, applauding opponents shots, saying c’mon immediately after you win a point etc.
The ATP should worry about stamping out all of that stuff before it worries about occurrences that happen every 10,000 matches where the winner was serving for the match and had only been broken once and won a lot more receiving points than his opponent.
The real injustice was that it probably affected Draper in his following match. So while FAA thought he was hard done by, it was really Draper who was damaged from all of that carrying on. Simply because he framed a half volley.
how is that an injustice when Draper was the reason why it happened?
How was Draper the reason that it happened? because he framed a shot?
The injustice occurred because his character was attacked and that shouldn’t be allowed to happen. It should be between the player that disputed the decision and the umpire only.
Draper was probably too nice about it when he offered to replay the point after the decision was made.
FAA should even get a fine for that. He is allowed to ask the player what he though but he has no right to attack his character.
Draper never offered to replay the point, he only agreed to replay it if chair umpire changes his decision, knowing that he won’t change, and if he changed his decision it wasn’t up to Draper if he is going to replay the point or not, he would have had to do, like it or not.
If he had any decency he would concede the point, he knew that ball hit the ground before jumping over, that’s not ping pong.
AND if the chair umpire changed his decision, Draper should have CONCEDED the point, not REPLAYED it. He LOST the point.
Agree
Did the chairman umpire change his decision?
I know a good shrink if you need one. Just let me know.
I like Jack and am a Brit. I definitely think he was on very dubious ground here and FAA behaved like the gentleman he is. Disappointed in Jack tbh.
He genuinely thought he won the point and that it was that close and happened that quickly it was impossible to know so he was just going along with the umpires call. He is not going to say replay it when he believes there was just as much chance he won the point legitimately.
There was no reason for him to snatch the point because he was serving for the match anyway and at the end of the day, its the umpires call.
Aliassime first words to Draper were “Jack, you know”. If I was the ATP, I’d fine him for that, that’s offensive, unless of course this was a setup to create some publicity because Aliassime was laughing and smiling at various stages during this whole saga.
Ive watched it at 0.25x speed multiple times and I still cant see how the ball bounces after it hits his racquet. That’s how obvious was to Draper, the umpire and everyone else. And we dont even know if what you’re saying is true. Has there been an official confirmation that ball did indeed bounce after hitting his racquet?
you blind?
I actually think the umpire made the right call. Draper won it fair and square and deserves an apology.
haha
Draper is even blatantly lying when he says “I was looking at you not at the ball” when in fact his eyes are all the time on the ball, including the moment he shanked the ball, easily to see on provided video.
It’s like those situations where someone touches the net. How often do they own up?
The match wasn’t tight like those typical scenarios where touching the net becomes a factor. Draper was serving do it the match and had only been broken once in 3 sets. Chances of him losing that game and match were less than 10-5%.
Find a new story.