Amidst Jack Draper’s contentious match point controversy, Novak Djokovic unexpectedly steps in.

Jack Draper’s win against Felix Auger-Aliassime was marred by huge controversy on the match point, with tennis legend Novak Djokovic now joining the debate to demand change in tennis.

Draper booked a place in the last eight of the Cincinnati Open as he came from behind to beat Canada’s Auger-Aliassime 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

The match ended in controversy as the ball with Auger-Aliassime arguing the ball had hit the frame of Draper’s racket and then the floor on match point.

TV replays appeared to clearly show Draper should no have been awarded the point, with Auger-Aliassime calling the tournament referee on court to argue his case.

“Jack, you know,” he said, before addressing the umpire. “That’s horrendous what you just did. Did you not see the ball bounce on the floor?”

“It bounced up from the cord and went over?” the umpire replied.

“No no no, on the floor,” Auger-Aliassime said.

“Mate. Horrible call, but every player knows you know exactly where you hit it hahaha ridiculous stuff,” the Australian wrote on X.

 

Auger-Aliassime went on to tell the official: “That is horrendous what you just did. Did you not see the ball bounce on the floor? He shanked it onto the floor! We’re going to leave here, this will be everywhere and it’s going to look ridiculous.”

He added: “I’m going to ask you one more time, if you’re 100% sure that you’re not going to leave here and that you have no doubt, not one ounce of doubt in yourself that that was a clean volley winner, then I’ll shake his hand right now and the match will be over.”

Chair umpire Greg Allensworth admitted he may have been wrong in his call to award Draper the point and the Brit suggested he would replay the point after claiming he was ‘looking at Felix’ and didn’t know if he had hit the ball into the ground.

The trajectory of the ball off his racket should have been enough for Allensworth to realise it had been pushed into the ground, but the point went to the Brit after a lengthy debate on court.

Now 24-time Grand Slam legend Djokovic has entered the debate, with a surprise posting on his X account.

Djokovic rarely gets involved in contentious tennis debates on his social media platforms, but he felt the need to voice his opinion and call on the ATP Tour to use technology to ensure this kind of controversy never happens again.

“It’s embarrassing that we don’t have video replay of these kind of situations on the court,” wrote Djokovic.

“What’s even more ridiculous is that we don’t have the rule in place that would allow chair umpires to change the original call based on the video review that happens off the court! Everyone who watches TV sees what happened on the replay, yet the players on the court are kept in “dark” not knowing what’s the outcome.

“We have Hawkeye for line calls, we live in the technologically advanced 21st century! Please respective Tours, make sure this nonsense never happens again!”

 

 

Djokovic’s comments came after a host of big names voicing their opinion on the incident, with 2022 Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios suggesting Draper knew “exactly what happened” and now Tsistipas, who lost against Draper in the previous round in Cincinnati, dropping a message on his X account claiming: “I don’t think I have ever seen a shot like this.”

Tsistipas got plenty of heated responses to his X post, with plenty of critics suggesting Draper knew what he had done and should have replayed the point.

Andy Roddick also questioned Draper’s claim that he didn’t know whether he has hit the ball into the ground with this message on X: “I feel like every time I’ve ever shanked a ball straight into the ground, I’ve known that I shanked it straight into the ground. Also if you have the tech, just get the call right. Takes longer to argue about it.”

Draper insisted he was not to blame for the controversy, as he offered up these comments: “I was shocked at the pass and too busy looking at him. I looked at the umpire to see if he called a double bounce, but he didn’t say it. I couldn’t make that call myself.”