With growing competitiveness in the sporting world, there is very little margin for error. Ask the chair umpire, Mohamed Leyhani, who was at the receiving end during the ongoing Italian Open. In the first-round contest between Fabio Fognini and Dan Evans there, the chair umpire caused a stir after he got a crucial call wrong. This invited the wrath of Serena Williams’ ex-coach, Rennae Stubbs.
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The incident occurred when Fognini was serving in the fifth game of the third set. The local star was facing a break point when he hit a forehand wide. However, the chair umpire felt that it had landed in and didn’t overturn the call of the line judge. It was a crucial point for Evans in the context of the match and if it had gone his way, he would have won a break back. But the chair umpire had other plans, leading to a sharp reaction from Evans.
Coming to the Briton’s support was Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs, who took to Twitter to call out the chair umpire. She said, “Leyhani is a side show! And the way he ran into Dan is… horrible call ! i can’t wait to finally have everywhere! We can all see how clearly out this ball was.”
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Leyhani is a side show! And the way he ran into Dan is 🙄🙄…. horrible call ! i can’t wait to finally have everywhere! We can all see how clearly out this ball was. https://t.co/Qswt8Gwnv5
— Rennae Stubbs ♈️ (@rennaestubbs) May 10, 2024
Replays showed that the ball had gone out quite wide. The Italian star went on to win that match, clinching the third set 6-2. Meanwhile, Stubbs hasn’t been short of her criticism of umpires lately. A few months back, she defended Coco Gauff after another poor call from the umpires.
When Rennae Stubbs defended Coco Gauff’s frustrated act
During the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships, a controversy erupted in the match between Coco Gauff and Karolina Pliskova. Umpire Pierre Bacchi was on the receiving end at that time, and he even denied Coco Gauff’s request to see the supervisor. This led to Gauff venting her frustration at him, which was defended by Stubbs.
Later, the former coach of Williams’ revealed, “I’ve already tweeted about this what he was saying if it’s a rule like if it’s a rule interpretation, you can ask for the chair of the supervisor. He should’ve known better that he said for a fact out after the ball was basically that was the worst f**king Call I’ve seen long time.”
With technology there at the disposal of umpires, it is about time that such incidents are avoided in the future. With the margin for error being so low between a win and a loss nowadays, the judgments must go in the right direction.
Written by
Edited by
Ananya Giri