A good tournament in Cincinnati for Félix Auger-Aliassime
Freshly arrived from Paris, where he won a bronze medal alongside Gabriela Dabrowski in mixed doubles, Felix Auger-Aliassime was defeated in the first round in Montreal in straight sets by the Italian Flavio Cobolli.
This loss was not surprising as Felix had played no less than 6 singles matches, 1 doubles match, and 4 mixed doubles matches over a 7-day period. Most other Olympic medalists, including Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, skipped Montreal, while the canadian had to travel from Paris on Sunday and play his first match the next day.
Arriving in Cincinnati with some rest, Auger-Aliassime started the Masters 1000 tournament strong. He took just 1 hour and 14 minutes to eliminate Alexander Kovacevic in the first round in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, and then defeated the 7th seed, Norwegian Casper Ruud, in just 1 hour and 8 minutes.
In the 3rd round, he faced one of the rising stars of the circuit, the 23-year-old Brit Jack Draper.
Several controversial calls for umpire Greg Allensworth
It must be said upfront that chair umpire Greg Allensworth is generally recognized as an excellent umpire, but he has had some difficult moments lately.
He first disqualified Denis Shapovalov two weeks ago after the Canadian directed profanities towards a spectator. Shapovalov was later defended by several of his colleagues in what was deemed an exaggerated and unfair situation by many.
Then, this week, when a ball hit out of the court by Brandon Nakashima was missed by the electronic line-calling system, the same chair umpire awarded the point to Nakashima, even though the electronic replay eventually showed the ball was out.
Controversy on match point
As Jack Draper and Felix Auger-Aliassime had split the first two sets of their third-round match, Draper broke the Canadian's serve at 3-3 in the third set to take the lead.
The controversial point occurred when Draper was serving for the match at 40-30. After hitting a wide serve to Auger-Aliassime’s backhand, Draper approached the net to finish the point with a volley. The Brit’s half-volley landed on the other side of the net with a strange spin.
Believing he had won the point, Félix began moving to the other side of the court to receive the next serve, only for the umpire to call the match over.
It's hard to blame the chair umpire since it's almost impossible to see the ball hit the ground at real speed, even when focusing on it. However, it becomes evident when watching the slow-motion replay:
After Felix calmly and classily defended his point, neither the chair umpire nor the supervisor could overturn the decision due to the lack of a video replay protocol. Here is an image showing the ball immediately after it struck the frame of Draper's racket.
Several professional players have questioned Jack Draper's statements claiming he didn't know if the ball touched the ground, suggesting he knew "100%" what had happened. But as Felix rightly pointed out, it wasn't Draper's call to make, but the umpire's.
But, as a Canadian fan, I would have appreciated a gesture of fair play from Draper. It must be said that Felix Auger-Aliassime handled the situation perfectly in true canadian fashion.
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