A frustrated Stanislas Wawrinka snapped his racket on his way to a controversial defeat at the Shanghai Masters.
The three-time Grand Slam champion was knocked out in the competition’s second round by Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, losing 6-7 (6) 7-6 (4) 6-3 in a match that was marred by a major refereeing error.
AFPWawrinka did not have the rub of the green during his defeat in Shanghai[/caption]
At 0-1 in the third set with Wawrinka serving, he won the first point as Cobolli’s backhand return landed out.
Chair umpire Carlos Bernardes correctly called the score as 15-0 over the tannoy, before immediately speaking into his Walkie-Talkie to request some electrolytes for Cobolli, and forgot to update the scoreboard.
Play then continued, with the Italian winning the next point to level the score at 15-15, but Bernardes instead declared it as 0-30.
Incredibly, neither the players nor the other officials noticed the critical error, and Cobolli went on to break serve later on in the game to take a 2-0 lead.
This was the first and only break of serve in a match, with the previous two sets being decided on tiebreaks, and ultimately proved to be the difference.
Shortly afterwards, the Italian world number 30 raced into a 3-0 lead as Wawrinka’s frustrations got the better of him during the game.
After losing a crucial point with the score locked at 40-40 to hand Cobolli the advantage, the current world number 236 snapped his racket in half over his knee.
Wawrinka received a point penalty as a result, meaning he then lost the game to place the match firmly in his opponent’s hands.
And Cobolli refused to let his lead slip, going on to clinch the final set 6-3 to secure victory and set up a third round clash with Novak Djokovic.
But much of the discussion after the match centred around the final set controversy, with many criticising the Bernandes’ huge mistake.
Credit: ESPNWawrinka’s frustrations boiled over in the third game of the final set[/caption]
Credit: ESPN
The Swiss star snapped his racket in two and went 3-0 down in the final set as a result[/caption]
After footage of the error emerged on social media, outspoken Australian star Nick Kyrgios took to X to slam the umpire.
He wrote: “BERNARDES SHOILD OF [sic] BEEN FIRED YEARS AGO. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN. Potato.”
Bernardes earlier this year announced that 2024 will be his final season, having become a full-time umpire on the ATP Tour in 1992.
Meanwhile, Brad Gilbert, who until recently coached US star Coco Gauff, was equally critical of the refereeing error.
Voicing his shock over the incident, he wrote on X: “How does that basic mistake happen and was not corrected, did not see the match if this happened inexcusable.”
In a further post, he reiterated his point, adding: “I am dumfounded.”
Admittedly, it may have been difficult for Bernardes to correct his mistake given that Wawrinka did not raise it as an issue.
Venus Williams found herself in a similar situation at Wimbledon in 2004 when her opponent was incorrectly awarded a point in a second set tiebreak which also led to her losing the match.
However, then-tournament referee Alan Mills told the BBC that because there was no query from Williams at the time, nothing could be done.
ATP rules state that a scoring error can be checked by Video Review, which is not yet widely operational across the ATP Tour and is used together with electronic line calling (ELC).
This feature is not present at the Shanghai Masters, where line judges call balls in or out, and each player has three challenges per set to review a call via Hawk-Eye technology.
