Denis Shapovalov knows a thing or two about umpiring calls not going his way thanks to the Washington Open 2024 default he suffered recently. The Canadian was disqualified from his quarter-final match against Ben Shelton when he shouted at a spectator during the match.
Shapovalov has now commented on the shocking incident that took place in the Round of 64 Cincinnati Open contest between Taylor Fritz and Brandon Nakashima when the umpire stopped the play midway due to an electronic line disruption.
When the second set was going on, Nakashima shot the ball out of the court but it wasn’t called out as there was a disruption in the electronic line that caused a failure in the process of calling out the error. However, Fritz continued to hit the ball and after a few shots, the chair umpire decided to stop the game and informed about the technical fault.
Shapovalov didn’t find the incident amusing and had a very witty reply to it. The Canadian player was not impressed with how the umpire reacted on the court and the conversation he had with Fritz thereafter.
The left-hander expressed his disbelief at the fact that an umpire has to tell a player to stop a particular point being played.
If you would have stopped the point ♂️. I can’t anymore https://t.co/RwkcLLhsOV
— Denis Shapovalov (@denis_shapo) August 14, 2024
When the umpire stopped the play due to technical failure, Fritz walked up to him to ask why the out was not called, to which the umpire said that the two contestants played too many shots after the error and Fritz should have stopped playing so that they could have reviewed the decision. To this, the former World No.5 replied:
“Don’t tell me I need to stop the point when we have electronic line calling.”
He further added that even if the line wasn’t working, the chair umpire was there to intervene and should have immediately called it out.
“But, why don’t you stop it? You’re in the chair, you saw that ball. It was like a foot out,” Fritz added.
The argument didn’t yield Fritz any benefit as the umpire asked to replay the point while the two were at 30-30 in the second set.
Shapovalov’s reaction was also influenced by the fact that he himself had gone through some arguments with the chair umpire on several occasions. His quarrel with the referee and later, his opponent during his debut Wimbledon campaign in 2017 is quite popular.
That argument also took place due to the umpire not calling the ball out and instead awarding the point to Shapovalov’s opponent, Jerzy Janowicz.
