If in the spirit Jaume Munar could never have touched the ball, the rules are formal: the point should have been awarded to the Spaniard.
While he has to defend three match points against one of the surprises of this first round of the Indian Wells Masters 1000, the Taiwanese Tung‐Lin Wu, Jaume Munar sees his opponent rush to the net to execute a beautiful volley plunging. Except that by wanting to let go of his racquet to avoid hurting himself by falling to the ground, the 165e world hits the net with it and this well before the ball bounces twice on the ground as stipulated by the regulations.
Despite the Spaniard’s protests, the match’s main referee, France’s Aurélie Tourte, probably too focused on the ball, failed to notice that the match-winner’s racket had hit the net long before the two rebounds .
A new refereeing fault which should revive the debate on the possibility for a player to review the images in the event of a dispute other than for the announcement of a ball.
Posted on Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 1:52 PM
