Game win for wrong player - Incredible wrong decision causes a stir
In the first round of the WTA 250 tournament in Bogota between Astra Sharma and Giulia Gatto-Monticone there was an incredibly wrong decision. Referee Luis David Armenta Castro lost track of the score during a game and awarded the game to the wrong player.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Apr 08, 2021, 03:17 pm
Ordinarily, a match between Astra Sharma (AUS) and Giulia Gatto-Monticone (ITA) in the first round of a WTA 250 tournament would attract limited interest. Everything was different in Bogota, but neither player showed the main responsibility. Rather, it was referee Luis David Armenta Castro who caused a sensation with an unbelievably wrong decision.
What happened? In the third set, at 1: 1 and 0:30 from Gatto-Monticone's point of view, a ball from the serving Italian landed just outside the box. Armenta Castro climbed down from his chair and confirmed the linesman's call out. Apparently, Sharma should have found three breakballs, but instead the referee announced a wrong score: 30:15 suddenly it was 30:15 for Gatto-Monticone.
Sharma after wrong decision without a game win
While the correct intermediate result 0:40 was displayed in the TV graphics, Armenta Castro assumed the server had a 30:15 lead. Two points later, Sharma would actually have made the break after a forehand error by her opponent, instead the game win wrongly went one point to Gatto-Monticone.
Both players could see the confusion, but the disadvantaged Sharma initially did not enter into any discussion with the referee. The world rankings 134. However, lost the next four games and thus the match. After her first round defeat, she commented on the incidents on Twitter.
"My opponent and the referee said I made three three mistakes. And since I couldn't remember how I won the points, I couldn't delay the game. I was confused and asked her to speak to the linesman who had seen at least three of her balls too far. He said they were exchanged, "wrote the Australian.
No statement from the WTA
The next day Sharma added more. You knew that something must be wrong, but just like Armenta Castro, you could not reconstruct the points. A video study was also not possible. "I felt really helpless and stupid," stated the 25-year-old.
Sharma was particularly angry about the statements of the tournament director Cristina Romero: "The supervisor told me I should learn a lesson and concentrate more on the result than on tennis in the future. My confusion is no excuse." The WTA has not yet issued a statement on this incident.