Last week two players had to be physically separated at the German Open during a dispute over clay court line calls. Using that as a backdrop, we will revisit clay court ball mark procedures one last time before moving on to electronic line calling next week.
The chair umpire, Aurelie Tourte, was forced to physically separate Fabio Fognini and Slovenian Aljaz Bedene following their first round match in the tournament. Bedene accused Fognini of pointing to the wrong ball marks when the umpire came out of the chair to inspect close calls. That accusation reflects a profound lack of understanding of the rules and misplaced anger if indeed the wrong marks were examined.
The chair umpire is solely responsible for determining which mark to inspect. If the umpire is uncertain of the mark location, she can ask the line umpire for help. While either player can offer their opinion, it should have no influence on the chair umpire whatsoever. Tourte is an experienced and highly regarded chair umpire and it is ludicrous to think that she might have been influenced by Fognini.
If several wrong marks were indeed inspected, as Bedene believed, then his anger should have been directed at the chair umpire rather than his opponent. However, it is probably a fair assumption that the entire episode was one of the less rational moments of his life.
It is yet another example of a professional player exhibiting a lack of understanding of the rules of tennis.
The following tweet contains a video clip of the post-match episode.
