ANDY MURRAY had an EXPLOSIVE argument with an umpire throughout his first match on the Rome Masters in Italy. The Scotsman raged at umpire Mohamed Lahyani after a difficult line-call on the baseline of the courtroom.
Lahyani got here down from his chair to examine the courtroom. Murray had come into the Italian Open recent from profitable the Aix-en-Provence, his first ATP Tour title in 4 years. He drew a troublesome first spherical, developing in opposition to former top-ten participant Fognini. The Italian dominated the primary set, urged on by a house crowd, however Murray fought again valiantly to make the rating 5-3.
With the match hotting up, Fognini went to serve and produced an enormous lob that was known as in by the road decide. However Murray instantly challenged the decision, bringing Lahyani down from his chair to examine the courtroom. The 2 had been seen pointing on the baseline, with Lahyani even crouching down to look at the place the ball had made a mark within the clay.
Nonetheless, the umpire agreed with the unique name, prompting a livid outburst from Murray. He started shouting: “You possibly can see the ball mark mate. Mohamed, look. How are you going to see that ball from there being in? How is it doable?” He even accused the umpire of making an attempt to sabotage the mark, saying: “You’re making an attempt to make a mark now. You possibly can see the clay remains to be there. You possibly can see the ball mark.”
Lahyani ran again to his chair having had sufficient of the trade, however Murray adopted him. He screamed on the umpire: “You already know you’ve bought that mistaken.”
Murray even adopted Lahyani again to his umpire’s chair as the 2 continued to argue. And Murray was right- Hawkeye then confirmed Fognini’s shot had landed simply exterior the baseline. However, the Italian Open doesn’t use Hawkeye for line calls, as a substitute counting on the umpire, so the choice gave Fognini some extent to carry serve.
The choice re-sparked debate over using Digital Line Calling methods like Hawkeye, with the expertise solely being rolled out throughout all ATP tournaments in 2025. Murray finally misplaced in three units to the Italian, and will probably be upset with the result of the match after beginning the 12 months so positively
Hawkeye later proved Murray proper however isn’t used for line calls within the Italian Open. Murray left the match dejected after shedding in three units to Fognini
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