Novak Djokovic has called for video replays to be immediately introduced into tennis after a controversial moment on the weekend as Carlos Alcaraz has apologised for smashing his racquet. Djokovic has led the calls for the chair umpire to be able to review points after Canadian star Felix Auger-Aliassime became enraged after losing to Great Britain’s Jack Draper after what appeared to be a double bounce.
The Canadian was facing match-point when he thought he got it back to deuce off a drop shot. Draper appeared to be slightly late to the drop shot, despite returning it over the net. Auger-Aliassime stopped chasing the ball having believed he had won the point. This is because Draper appeared to hit the ball into the ground, before it came into contact with his racquet once again and went over the net.
Except the chair umpire called game, set and match with Auger-Aliassime looking at Draper with confusion. Draper appeared unsure over whether he made the shot in time, but Auger-Aliassime was left dumbfounded as the two met at the net.
Auger-Aliassime tried to explain that the ball had been hit into the ground by Draper, although his opponent was confused. Draper admitted he didn’t know if the shot should have counted or not. The chair umpire said there was nothing he could do having awarded the match to Draper, which left Auger-Aliassime stunned. Despite the controversial call and protest, the Canadian accepted the defeat with class.
The backlash from the tennis world was swift with fans and former players in disbelief at the decision and tennis’ lack of technology to help resolve the situation. And Djokovic jumped on social media to call out the ugly drama and claimed it was very easy to introduce video replays for chair umpires to rule out mistakes like this happening again.
“It’s embarrassing that we don’t have video replay of these kind of situations on the court,” Djokovic wrote, having taken a break from the tournament after winning gold at the Olympics.“What’s even more ridiculous is that we don’t have the rule in place that would allow chair umpires to change the original call based on the video review that happens off the court!
“Everyone who watches TV sees what happened on the replay, yet the players on the court are kept in the ‘dark’ not knowing what’s the outcome.” Djokovic added: “We have Hawkeye for line calls, we live in the technologically advanced 21st century! Please respective Tours, make sure this nonsense never happens again!” Tennis fans were left equally stunned at the decision with Rennae Stubbs questioning whether Draper should have known if he made the shot or not.
At the Olympics, Coco Gauff called for replays and technology to be introduced on clay after feeling dudded with a call in Paris. Gauff questioned why technology and replays can’t be used in the sport to make sure huge errors don’t get overlooked.
“I feel like in tennis, we should have a VR (video review) system because these points are big deals. And, yeah, usually afterwards, they apologise, so it’s kind of frustrating when the sorry doesn’t help you once the match is over,” Gauff said after her elimination at the Olympics.
Carlos Alcaraz apologises after racquet smash
Meanwhile, Alcaraz has apologised for breaking one of his racquets in a rare outburst from the Spanish superstar in his defeat to Gael Monfils. Alcaraz claimed he was playing the worst match of his career at Cincinnati and he exploded trailing in the third set.
After the match, Alcaraz admitted he didn’t want to be on court after his perplexing level of tennis following months of playing at the highest standard. “It never happened before because I could control those feelings,” Alcaraz said after breaking his racquet. “Today I couldn’t. I was feeling that I was not playing any kind of tennis. It was really frustrating for me. At some point, I didn’t want to be on the court anymore.”
And Alcaraz took to social media after the backlash to apologise for smashing the racquet. He claimed his attitude was not right, but he would improve ahead of the US Open.
