Casper Ruud was unhappy with how umpire Richard Haigh enforced the rules during a heated US Open clash with Zhizhen Zhang.
The Norwegian, who recently talked about tennis experts on Twitter, found himself in a very complicated situation at the US Open against Zhizhen Zhang, a Chinese player who was playing the best match he played all year long. They played earlier this year at Roland Garros, where Ruud barely pulled through, and this was equally challenging.
Zhang won the opening set, but Ruud returned to win the second, with the Chinese player getting an early break in the 3rd. He held for the 2-1 lead but then saw a furious Ruud smashing him in 20ish minutes for the 2-2 in sets.
That is when Zhang took a toilet break to change his gear but went way over time. The pause lasted a good 7 or so minutes, which Ruud wasn't happy with. Generally, players have about three minutes to do that, and while overstepping is tolerated, it's not exactly by the rules.
You follow the rules so clearly sometimes and other times you don't give a sh*t!
The pause completely wrecked Ruud's momentum, which was broken immediately and furiously blasted umpire Richard Haigh for how he handled that situation. Ruud argued that he should have gotten a point for every 30 seconds Zhang went over the 3 minutes.
While the rules are rarely enforced that way, the Chinese player certainly took some liberties there, and it's not the first time, either. Haigh didn't do anything, allowing Ruud to plead his case and let him walk away without a code violation.
The Norwegian continued playing but was visibly angry, pulling on his shirt and making all sorts of faces as Zhang continued to bomb away from his serve. It finished with Zhang smashing Ruud 6-2 in the final set, as Ruud never regained focus after the first game. Ruud played in the final last year.
0 Comments