Jack Draper, the men’s British No 1, says he has been hurt by the backlash he has received and the questioning of his integrity in the aftermath of his controversial match point during his fourth-round win against Félix Auger-Aliassime at the Cincinnati Open. Draper says he hopes the incident will result in tennis adopting video replay technology.
“I’ve always valued myself on being honest and a good person,” Draper said. “Forget the tennis – that is one of the most important things to me in my life. So to obviously see that stuff, and see people talking about you for the first time in a negative way – and questioning your integrity and stuff like that – it’s obviously difficult to see.
“I don’t blame people for doing that. Obviously, on the slow-mo, when you watch it from the side, it’s very clear it’s an illegal shot. There’s no doubt about that. But when you’re in the moment and you serve out wide and the guy’s hit a 95mph ball at your feet, you just put a racket down and I didn’t know what happened. I looked at the umpire straight away. I think I took a swipe at it, because I thought it was going in the bottom of the net, and then it hit the net and went over. It was just like a split second of madness.”
Draper attempted to close out an excellent performance against Auger-Aliassime with a serve and volley but, instead of hitting a forehand half volley, Draper inadvertently hit the ball into the ground, which bounced up and dribbled over the net. The umpire, Greg Allensworth, did not notice the double bounce and a frustrated Auger-Aliassime patiently explained why Draper should have lost the point.
Draper had offered to replay the point if they could see the video replay but he maintained that he was unsure of what had happened and he was eventually declared the winner.
The British player said: “The way [Auger-Aliassime] dealt with it, obviously on the court, but then in the changing room as well, he’d obviously seen the replay, and probably had his questions – ‘You knew’ and stuff like that – but he was classy about it, and full respect to him. Because if I was in that situation that he was in, I don’t know how I would have reacted, and I don’t know how a lot of people would have reacted.”
After quite an understated few years on the ATP tour, this has been Draper’s first taste of controversy. In addition to players such as Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas either commenting on the point or questioning Draper’s decision not to hand over the point, there has been significant criticism on social media.
“I was thinking about it four days non-stop,” Draper said. “I was really upset by it – like I said, it’s something I really think is more important than anything, it’s respect, it’s honesty, it’s fair play and all this sort of stuff. I’ve done it on the tour before, where I’ve maybe given a second serve because there’s been a loud noise or something. And I always play by those things.
“But honestly, in that moment, I couldn’t do anything because I didn’t know – that was the honest truth of it. And I think anyone would be lying if they’re saying they’re not hurt by seeing a lot of comments saying you’re a cheat, you’re a liar. And that I would have done this, and I would have done that.
“It’s hard in that situation to know what to do and also it’s good because it’s my first experience of having negativity and having criticism, and that’s all part of being a top athlete.”
Draper said he hopes the situation will help to provoke the use of video replays for officiating. While the US Open has allowed players to request video replays since last year, it is not available anywhere else on the tour. “Overall, it’s a good experience for everyone, and a good way of showing that we really do need VAR technology and hope that this situation doesn’t happen, so that tennis is completely fair.”
Beyond the controversy, Draper’s quarter-final run in Cincinnati, which also included a win against Tsitsipas, was another positive step forward. He is seeded at the US Open for the first time in his career and with Andy Murray’s retirement he now truly takes centre stage as the highest‑ranked British player. The 25th seed faces a tough first‑round match against the talented Zhang Zhizhen of China.
Draper arrives in New York after making a significant change to his team. He has split with Wayne Ferreira after working with the South African alongside his longtime coach James Trotman since June.
“I always wanted Trotts to be the one leading what I was doing. And I just felt like it was not as simple as I liked. I wanted one voice in my team and I feel like it was the right thing to probably part ways with Wayne and keep it how I want it as a player. That being said, my time with Wayne was amazing.”
Source: theguardian.com
