Jenson-Brooksby
Brooksby accidentally hit a ball boy during his opening round match against Federico Coria at Miami Open 2022
Jenson Brooksby came from a set down to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 against Coria but the match is in the spotlight for Brooksby’s controversial act. Coria was up a double break during the decisive third set and managed to set up a breakpoint on Brooksby’s serve which prompted the American to throw down his racquet in frustration and it bounced up to hit a ball boy who was standing by the scoreboard at the back of the court. Brooksby was handed a point penalty gifting the game to Coria but the Argentine was not satisfied with the decision.
Coria questioned the chair umpire Carlos Bernardes to explain why Brookskby hadn’t been defaulted with the American having already thrown his racquet earlier in the match, which landed on the other side of the court. However, the chair umpire was rigid on his decision and applied the rules of a second warning to the world no. 39 which was a penalty and told Coria to ask the ball boy for his thoughts.
The tennis community has witnessed similar incidents recently – Alexander Zverev hit a chair umpire’s stand repeatedly at the Acapulco Open and Nick Kyrgios almost hit a ball boy after smashing a racquet on the court at the Indian Wells Masters. Although the incidents were mostly similar in nature, the end verdicts are completely different from each other.
Kyrgios smashed his racquet out of frustration after his 6-7, 7-5, 4-6 defeat to Nadal at the Indian Wells. After the customary handshake at the end of the match, Kyrgios smashed the racquet against the ground which bounced off and almost hit a ball boy who ducked in time. Kyrgios was asked about the incident in his post-match interaction and the Australian got offended that everyone was concentrating on an “unintentional event” instead of the amazing tennis match. Later on, Kyrgios apologised to the ball boy and gifted him his racquet. However, he was let off with no disciplinary action.
Alexander Zverev was disqualified from the Mexican Open over a similar incident. Zverev was angered by an umpiring call that didn’t go in his favour. The scoreline was 8-6 in the tie break when the German felt the ball should have been called ‘out’ but it was not. He started hurling abuses at the chair umpire in rage. Zverev and Melo eventually lost the match 6-2, 4-6, 6-10. Soon after the match, the tournament authorities made an official statement on Twitter, “Due to unsportsmanlike conduct at the conclusion of the doubles match, Alexander Zverev has been withdrawn from the tournament in Acapulco.”
Zverev was scheduled to play his singles match but couldn’t take part any further due to the disqualification.
The inconsistency in decision-making is eye catching and certainly leaves a lot of room for improvement!
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