Nalbandian fumes over contentious call in loss
Source: Agencies |
January 19, 2012, Thursday
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JOHN Isner's latest five-set, marathon win was overshadowed by David Nalbandian's outrage over a line call.
The towering American rallied from a two-sets-to-one deficit to beat Nalbandian 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 10-8 in a second-round match that lasted for 4 hours, 41 minutes, including a 99-minute deciding set.
Neither player had any break points until the 17th game when the Argentine veteran got three chances on Isner's serve. The American fended off the first two. On the third, he hit a serve down the middle that was called out.
Chair umpire Kader Nouni, however, overruled the call, saying it was an ace.
Nalbandian approached the chair to protest the ruling and then went to study the mark where the ball had landed to decide whether to challenge the call by checking the video replay. But when he raised his finger to challenge, Nouni said he'd taken too long and awarded the point to Isner, making the score deuce.
"It's ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires," Nalbandian after the match. "What is this? What did the ATP do for this? I didn't understand in that situation, 8-all, break point. I mean, can you be that stupid to do that in that moment?"
The 30-year-old former Wimbledon finalist was even more pointed when asked by the Spanish media whether he thought the ruling was personal.
"It's not personal, no," Nalbandian said. Umpires "don't have the capacity make a sound judgment in the important moments of a match. They're bad." Officials later clarified that a request for a challenge must be made in a timely manner - a judgment that is left to the umpire's discretion.
The towering American rallied from a two-sets-to-one deficit to beat Nalbandian 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 10-8 in a second-round match that lasted for 4 hours, 41 minutes, including a 99-minute deciding set.
Neither player had any break points until the 17th game when the Argentine veteran got three chances on Isner's serve. The American fended off the first two. On the third, he hit a serve down the middle that was called out.
Chair umpire Kader Nouni, however, overruled the call, saying it was an ace.
Nalbandian approached the chair to protest the ruling and then went to study the mark where the ball had landed to decide whether to challenge the call by checking the video replay. But when he raised his finger to challenge, Nouni said he'd taken too long and awarded the point to Isner, making the score deuce.
"It's ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires," Nalbandian after the match. "What is this? What did the ATP do for this? I didn't understand in that situation, 8-all, break point. I mean, can you be that stupid to do that in that moment?"
The 30-year-old former Wimbledon finalist was even more pointed when asked by the Spanish media whether he thought the ruling was personal.
"It's not personal, no," Nalbandian said. Umpires "don't have the capacity make a sound judgment in the important moments of a match. They're bad." Officials later clarified that a request for a challenge must be made in a timely manner - a judgment that is left to the umpire's discretion.
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