Jo-Wilfried Tsonga carps that the umpire favoured Rafael Nadal in the quarter-final – Tennis News
Although Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lost the quarter-final battle against the world number two, Rafael Nadal, at the Sony Ericsson Open, the Frenchman criticised the chair umpire of being biased in favour of his Spanish opponent. Tsonga
said that the match umpire, Damian Steiner, was reluctant to overrule the close calls made by the linesmen, clearly hinting that he was favouring Nadal on such points.
The word number six lamented that such behaviour of the chair umpire made huge distraction in his game play and his concentration in the match was lost. Tsonga complained that he was forced to focus on the line more to go for any
challenge against the linesmen and was distracted in the process, eventually losing the matchup after a stiff battle.
“It’s not fair,” Tsonga said. “If it’s really close, he would never say ‘out’ against Rafa. If Rafa doesn’t like him anymore, he would not be in the chair many times in a final and semi-final.”
Tennis lovers see Tsonga’s such remarks as a lame excuse to his loss in the semi-final of Miami Masters. The Frenchman played extremely well throughout the match but it was sheer class and skill of the Spaniard which didn’t allow
him to finish on the winning side in the end. He laboured for two hours and 49 minutes to lose the battle at, 2-6, 7-5, 4-6 but his comments after the defeat are viewed in a bad light by the critics.
“I understand sometimes the frustration on this situation,” said Nadal, “It’s a general thing with the referees today that with the Hawk-Eye, I believe that they feel that they have less pressure than before. Probably knowing that
you have the challenge, they don’t take the risk to have to overrule. He’s right in one thing; he’s wrong in another thing.”
Nadal is aiming high to get his hands on his first Miami Masters title this season and will face the world number four, Andy Murray, in the semis. The top seed Serbian, Novak Djokovic and Argentina’s Juan martin Del Potro will
feature the other semi-final of the tournament on Friday night.
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