There was a contentious moment in one of the first-round matches at the ATP Challenger 125-level in Saint-Tropez, France.
In a match pitting high-flying American Michael Mmoh up against Jesper De Jong, the incident happened at a crucial moment in the first set. Dutchman De Jong had a look at a break point to go 4-2 up. The fifth-seeded Mmoh saved it with a well-disguised drop shot.
But on a second look, it appears that a second ball interfered with the play after flying out of Mmoh's pocket - the ball meant for a second serve. Strangely enough, the chair umpire saw it, but chose to ignore it, telling De Jong, 'When the ball drops out from his pocket, you need to be disturbed.'
As soon as Mmoh won the point, the ball kids could be seen rushing to retrieve it from the baseline, where it appeared to be static. De Jong had given up on the point as he was convinced it was going to be replayed for a let. But since the umpire felt it 'didn't interfere' with play and the American not budging to admit the gaffe, it was not replayed.
Mmoh would hold his serve, and a few games later, he would break his opponent to take a 5-4 lead. He sealed the first set with a hold to 30. De Jong responded, dominating the second set and breaking the American on two occasions, whilst saving two break points on his own serve. He leveled the match at one set all.
The match was suspended due to darkness at 3-all in the decider. It was a momentum disruptor for De Jong, who was broken in the 10th game of the deciding set on resumption of play on Tuesday to hand the World No. 94 victory. Mmoh will face Eliakim Coulibaly in the second round on Wednesday. You can check out the moment when this controversial moment happened in the video below.
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