Frances Tiafoe and Milos Raonic battled for over an hour in a 26-point first-set tiebreak that ended in dramatic circumstances at the Canadian Open.
The two players engaged in an intense rally at 13-12, with Tiafoe holding his fifth set point of the night, when Raonic chased to put away a short ball mid-court. It looked destined to land in but clipped the high part of the net cord, but before it nestled on the court, Tiafoe got there in time and scooped it for a cross-court winner.
However, Tiafoe came at a searing pace to chase the deadball, and his momentum forced him to touch the net before the ball bounced twice. Chair umpire Fergus Murphy initially called it a foul shot but quickly reversed his decision after realizing Tiafoe touched the area between the singles stick and the post, which according to ATP rules, counts as a permanent fixture and not part of the net.
Fergus Murphy corrected himself and awarded Tiafoe the point, much to the dismay of Raonic who requested clarification from the supervisor. Raonic didn't get any joy either from the Supervisor, who concurred with Murphy's revised call.
"Yeah. So I guess the part that's confusing is he did call it my point. And I think at one point he said whatever it was, 12-All or 13-All that it should have been. Then he went and changed his mind."
"Then the discussion wasn't where he touched the net. Then the discussion became, logically, the ball can't bounce the way he hit that shot at that speed. It won't bounce twice before he touches the net; right? Because he's too close to the net. So the logic was that he must have touched it either before it bounced once but definitely before it bounced twice."
It didn't matter, though, in the end, as Raonic had the last laugh, turning the match around to win 6-7, 7-6, 6-3. He hammered an astonishing 37 aces during the night, falling just one short of his career-best in a three-set match. Raonic also questioned the umpire's honesty, adding that the whole ordeal was handled poorly.
"So I don't have faith that they were being completely honest, but it is what it is. I think they just handled it badly, whatever the rule would have been. I just didn't think it was handled."
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