Ben Shelton hit an irregular and controversial double-hit volley in his first-round Cinch Championships victory over JJ Wolf.
Shelton led the match one set to nil before the second set was taken to a decisive tie-break. The 20-year-old was then winning 3-0 against Wolf in the second set tie break and a close rally ended with Shelton racing to the net and setting for himself for a forehand volley back to Wolf.
However, Shelton appeared to scoop the ball up with one attempt and then volley over the net with the next shot in a possible double hit. The chair umpire did not overrule the decision and gave the point to Shelton after he protested the shot's legality, while Wolf was left bewildered as to why he didn't win the point due to Shelton's potential double hit.
"One motion, one swing, it was one swing."
"It is my judgement call and it went like that (in one motion)."
Eventually, Shelton went on the see out the second set to defeat Wolf 7-6, 7-6 and 7-2 in the final tie-break of the match. However, the manner in which the young American won the deciding point with a supposed double-hit volley appeared controversial when the tiebreak was at a potential turning point.
It was also an important win for Shelton as it marked his first-ever victory in a grass court competition and the 20-year-old set up a second-round contest against Lorenzo Musetti at Queen's Club.
In a post displaying the shot at the Cinch Championship, TennisTV asked a question to viewers to decide whether Shelton committed an error or not.
"Have you ever seen this before? Shelton leads 3-0 in the tie break. And hits a volley with irregular contact"
Some fellow ATP players noticed the post and they weren't really happy about it. There were multiple comments under it from the likes of Nick Kyrgios, Alexander Bublik, and Rohan Bopanna, all claiming it was a clear double-hit.
"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."
"And players pay prices because of this beautiful umpiring."
"Another terrible judgement call by the umpire. This was not at all in any angle one swing. The point should have gone to JJ Wolf."
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