The French Open women’s singles final ended in controversial circumstances, with tennis pundits blasting umpire Kader Nouni for not checking the decisive shot.
Unseeded Czech star Barbora Krejcikova clinched her maiden grand slam title on Saturday, defeating No. 31 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 2-6 6-4 in the Roland Garros final.
Krejicikova needed four championships points to finally secure the win, failing to convert her opening three opportunities.
Watch Tennis Live with beIN SPORTS on Kayo. Live Coverage of ATP + WTA Tour Tournaments including Every Finals Match. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
The 25-year-old celebrated with a subdued fist pump when Pavlyuchenkova’s backhand seemingly landed too deep — but replays showed that wasn’t the case.
Eagle-eyed fans shared clips of the decisive shot landing on the baseline, questioning why Nouni neglected to check the landing point.
ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert tweeted: “I am shocked umpire did not fly out of chair to check mark, bad tournament for umpires.
“(The umpires) have to check mark there and we never got to see Hawkeye replay.
“Absolutely absurd they did not check the mark … absolutely inexcusable to not look at mark.
“Inexcusable this is happening, that can literally change outcome of matches.”
The French Open is the only grand slam tournament not to use electronic line-calling — the other three events each use Hawk-Eye Live technology.
“No Hawk-Eye on clay, it’s difficult,” Krejcikova told reporters after her semi-final victory over Maria Sakkari.
“Sometimes it’s a help, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Despite a couple of controversial moments throughout the tournament, tournament director Guy Forget remained adamant the human element of umpiring was important.
“The bottom line, before doing anything new, is that it’s people’s jobs that we’re talking about,” Forget told ESPN on Friday.
“It’s not just machine versus a man’s eye. We have a very good way of teaching from a young age, a chair umpire and linesman. In our country, we have some of the best umpires and one of the reasons is that this is so consistent; we have multiple tournaments in France throughout the season, they are very active and they go from being a linesman to eventually a chair umpire and (some) to a referee.
“In my opinion, it is a very simple and actually nice way of having an exchange with the players and umpire and the crowd likes it and they kind of go, ‘Oh, oh, oh,’ and wait for the reaction. I think that adds a bit of spice to the situation.
“I’m very much in favour of keeping the linesmen. I think they add value to the sport. I think it’s wonderful to have them and I hope it’ll stay like that, especially on clay.”
