Jack Draper's round of 16 match against Felix Auger-Aliassime at the 2024 Cincinnati Open ended with a controversial umpiring call handing the Briton the win, who insisted he would have been happy to replay the point.
Auger-Aliassime and Draper battled intensely in the fast conditions in Ohio. The Canadian broke in the 11th game of the first set, serving it out in the following game to take it 7-5.
Draper responded superbly in the following two sets. He won the second set 6-4 before serving for the match in the deciding set at 5-4 up. The 22-year-old held a match point at 40-30 up when the controversy started.
Auger-Aliassime hit a strong return off a serve that Draper tried to come to the net behind. He was left with a low volley that barely went over the net. But something seemed strange about Draper's shot when he first hit it.
On commentary, Robbie Koenig immediately felt Draper had hit the ball into the ground before it went over the net. Replays indicated that the analysis was correct, and the point should have been awarded to the Canadian.
However, umpire Greg Allensworth did not view the incident that way. The American thought the shot was fair and awarded Draper the point, meaning Auger-Aliassime lost after one of the most controversial endings to a match.
It was the third incident involving Allensworth in the space of two weeks. He also called the supervisor when Denis Shapovalov was defaulted and replayed the point when a line-calling malfunction cost Taylor Fritz a point.
Draper gave an interview on-court at the end of the match. This year's Stuttgart Open champion said he would have replayed the point if he had known for sure that his shot had hit the ground before going over the net.
"To be honest, I serve-volleyed, he hit an amazing pass at my feet, I was shocked at the pass, I was too busy looking at him, I didn't see what happened. I looked at the umpire straight away if he called a double-bounce or not."
"As a player, I'm focused on what I'm not doing, I can't make that call if I'm not 100%. I said when the supervisor came on that if he saw clearly it was a double-bounce, I would 100% have replayed the point."
The Briton acknowledged that ending the match with an umpiring mistake would be unfair to Auger-Aliassime and said he planned to look at the replay of the incident as soon as he got off the court.
"It would be ultra unfair on Felix if the match was won in that kind of way. I'll leave the court now, and I'll watch it straight away, and you know, I really couldn't make that call myself because I really didn't see it. So, let's see what happens on the video."
Some fans on social media felt it was unfair to blame Draper for the incident and that the umpire should take all the blame. Others, such as Nick Kyrgios, did not believe Draper was unaware of his shot hitting the ground.
Some also felt Draper's offer to replay the point was not good enough since Auger-Aliassime should have won the point. This incident will undoubtedly continue to generate heated debate.
0 Comments