Felix Auger-Aliassime is out of the Cincinnati Open, and the match is the talk of the tennis world thanks to a controversial match point.
The Canadian fell to Great Britain’s Jack Draper 7-5, 4-6, 4-6 in a third-round matchup on Friday.
But it’s the way he lost that will surely be keeping Auger-Aliassime up at night.
With Draper serving for the match in the third, up 40-30 in the game and five games to four in the set, Auger-Aliassime’s return appeared to handcuff Draper at the net. The ball appeared to bounce off Draper’s racket, into the ground and then over the net.
However, the chair umpire ruled that the ball went over the net without hitting the ground, and awarded the point, and match, to Draper.
Auger-Aliassime clearly saw the point differently, and he had a lengthy discussion with Draper and the chair umpire at the net.
“He shanked it on the floor,” the Canadian told the umpire multiple times.
“I didn’t see that,” the umpire responded.
Tennis currently does not allow video review for anything other than line-call challenges.
“It’s going to be everywhere, and it’s going to look ridiculous,” Auger-Aliassime told the chair umpire of the call.
He wasn’t wrong, as many tennis fans took to social media and were using the point as a prime example of why the sport needs to implement video review for all points.
Fellow Canadians Vasek Pospisil and Dennis Shapovalov showed their support for Auger-Aliassime and their discontent with the situation.
Video replay will be available at the upcoming US Open.
But without it currently implemented across the board, Auger-Aliassime and many others will have to live with the call the umpire makes in the moment.
Auger-Aliassime fired 12 aces in the match, but struggled with his serve, chalking up 12 double faults in his second match of the day.
The Montreal native broke Draper in the first set and won 73 per cent of his first service points across the match.
Auger-Aliassime beat Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-1 in a rain-delayed fourth-round bout earlier on Friday.
In women’s singles action, Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., handed Russia’s Diana Shnaider a 6-1, 6-4 loss in third-round play.
Fernandez came back from down 4-1 in the second set after play was suspended due to rain, breaking on four of her 10 chances while firing seven aces to six double faults.
The 21-year-old Canadian will face American Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals.
— With files from the Canadian Press
