Scandal in Shanghai: The referee forgets the result of a tennis match

Carlos Bernardez made a huge mistake. © AFP/Kenzo Tripouillard

A sight rarely seen on the tennis tour in the modern era occurred Monday at the Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai. The chair referee's error proved decisive in the match.

October 7, 2024

From: Leo

Because it rained all day again in the Chinese capital, only a few matches could be played as planned. One of them was between Italian Flavio Coppoli and three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka. The match was won by world number 30. From Rome with 6:7, 7:6 and 6:3. Then there was a scene to talk about that many outsiders would find difficult to understand.

Chair umpire Carlos Bernardez, one of the most popular umpires on the tour, was in radio contact with the head umpire at the beginning of the third set. Wawrinka won the first point at 1-0, but the distracted Brazilian forgot to write it down on the computer. A few moments later, Copoli reached 15:15 thanks to a stop ball. Fernandez approached the microphone and said: 0:30. Neither Wawrinka nor his team noticed the mistake. What is particularly bitter is that the Italian managed to break the only and decisive serve of the entire match, not least because of the error.

Since there is so much money and points at stake in the Masters tournaments, this misconception has caused quite a stir. The main referee in particular has now found himself in the crosshairs of criticism on social media because he has to prevent exactly such situations on the sidelines. The truth is that Wawrinka will be very upset by the incident, as he could have won back-to-back matches on the ATP Tour for the first time in over a year.