Djokovic shares his thoughts on the drama that occured in the Auger-Aliassime and Jack Draper match in Cincinnati.
Novak Djokovic has decided to share his thoughts on the stunning incident from the Auger-Aliassime and Jack Draper match as the record 24-time Grand Slam champion believes it’s time for tennis to introduce a VAR system and allow umpires to be able to check certain situations on the court.
If someone somehow missed it, Auger-Aliassime was facing a match point on Draper’s serve in the 10th game of the third set when the Briton came to the net and his ball appeared to go off his racket frame to the ground before getting over to the Canadian’s side of the net.
But chair umpire Greg Allensworth didn’t make any calls, which made Draper’s shot clean and since Auger-Aliassime didn’t manage to return the ball that landed in his part of the court – the Briton completed a 5-7 6-4 6-4 win.
However, Auger-Aliassime didn’t remain silent as he and umpire Allensworth argued for quite some time before the supervisor came to the court – but that also didn’t lead to any changes.
Auger-Aliassime, who was 100 percent that he was right, at one point even told Allensworth that he was going to “look ridiculous” after the situation goes viral. And the 24-year-old was right since Allensworth started receiving some strong criticism and backlash after fans watched the replay of the situation and it was showed that the ball clearly went off Draper’s frame to the ground.
After the incident, Stefanos Tsitsipas posted the footage of it and wrote: “Oh my,” before adding: “I don’t think I have ever seen a shot like this.”
Djokovic responds to Tsitsipas’ post about the incident from the Auger-Aliassime match
Because some similar incidents have happened throughout the year, players but also various other tennis personalities have been calling for video reviews. And after the latest incident, Djokovic is doing the same.
“It’s embarrassing that we don’t have video replay of these kind of situations on the court. 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 ‘dark’ not knowing what’s the outcome. We have Hawkeye for line calls, we live in the technologically advanced 21st century! Please respective Tours, make sure this nonsense never happens again!” Djokovic wrote.
What Auger-Aliassime told Allenworth on the court?
“That’s horrendous what you just did. But did you not see the ball bounce on the floor (court)?” Auger-Aliassime asked Allensworth before also telling him that Draper clearly “shanked it on the floor.”
But Allensworth was adamant in his claims that he saw nothing and that he didn’t have any doubts or otherwise he would have replayed the point.
“Man, You’re going to get out now, and it’s going to be everywhere, and it’s going to look ridiculous. I’m serious. It’s going to be crazy. And I know it’s not his place to make that call. It’s match point for him, it’s the win for him. But it’s your place to make that call,” Auger-Aliassime told the umpire.
Meanwhile, Draper also insisted that he couldn’t 100 percent confirm that the ball touched his racket and then hit his part of the court.
“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 straightaway to see if he called a double bounce or not. As a player, I’m trying to focus on what I’m doing, I can’t make that call if I’m not 100 percent,” Draper said afterward.
“I said when the supervisor came on that if he said it was a double bounce and that he saw it clearly, I would have 100 percent replayed the point. The amount of times in the last 12 months where I’ve had to do the right thing sometimes… We’ve had a long battle out here, 2 1/2 hours; it would be ultra unfair on Felix if the match was won in that kind of way.”
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