Ben Shelton made his debut on grass against J.J. Wolf beating him in two sets but the match wasn't without controversy.
Shelton has been playing really solid tennis for much of this year establishing himself as one of the better young players on the ATP Tour. He had his first grass experience at the 2023 Cinch Championships recently and it was a solid performance and a win.
The win though didn't pass by without controversy as
Shelton won a crucial point in the second set tie-break even though he shouldn't have. A very obvious double hit was ruled as 'one motion' by the umpire after Shelton exclaimed that it was one swing. Wolf was stunned by the call as the umpire explained as her own judgment call at the moment.
It is my judgement call and it went like that (in one motion).
I’m more surprised with the honesty of these players when they do something so blatant hahahaha like cmon bruh, it was 6 swings and some of the double bounces hahaha my favourite one is the stitch one when he hits.
- Kyrgios on the situation
This year already saw a few of these controversies with the
Rune - Cerundolo one at Roland Garros being the most famous one. The Dane
disappointed many by keeping his mouth shut about a double bounce which according to them he had a clear view of. He pleaded his case after the match by explaining that he really didn't see at the moment and that he was sorry for his opponent.