Andy Roddick has responded after Daniil Medvedev found himself embroiled in several arguments with officials.
Andy Roddick slammed the “dumpster fire” umpiring at last week’s Monte-Carlo Masters after watching Daniil Medvedev have several meltdowns over mistaken line calls. The American defended the world No. 4, claiming he had been right when arguing over ball marks in the clay. And Roddick wasn’t happy with several other warnings handed out over the week.
The Monte-Carlo Masters was overshadowed by controversy last week after several issues with line calls and questions over code violations given to players. Medvedev found himself at the centre of the storm, shouting at the umpires during both of his matches over mistaken calls.
The Russian managed to come through against Gael Monfils after getting broken in a game that saw the umpire overrule two calls. After Medvedev won the match, chair official Mohamed Lahyani admitted that he likely got one of the decisions wrong. And during his defeat to Karen Khachanov, the world No. 4 called for one linesman to be sacked.
“He’s a bad referee, he should be out of the referee circle,” Medvedev said after throwing his racket in frustration when he got broken off the back of one of the calls. And Roddick has now backed Medvedev after being left frustrated by the officiating in Monte Carlo.
“The umpiring in Monte Carlo was like a dumpster fire, like an absolute dumpster fire start to finish. Like why do we not have electronic line calling?” the former world No. 1 said on his Served podcast. “If we have the ability, why would we not want to get every call right?
“Like, well, there’s a mark on clay. You can misread a mark. I’ve had millions of practices with pro players who see marks all the time and you disagree on a mark. Wouldn’t it be nice to at least have confirmation bias or something to tell you to kind of get on with it?”
Turning his attention to Medvedev, the 2003 US Open winner continued: “There’s just a difference with Medvedev. It was like, he just did two days in a row. He’s just going off the umpire. Yeah, he was right both days, by the way.
“Medvedev is kind of right most of the time. Like when he melts down, he’s kind of right. And that should matter a little bit. It should matter. Like if you imagine you being at work, being right about something, and then also getting docked pay, or also being right, but also you have to suffer the consequences if you’re wrong. Like you wouldn’t go quietly.”
As well as Medvedev’s antics, Roddick also thought that two other players fell victim to unfair decisions. Holger Rune received a code violation for making a ‘blah-blah’ gesture with his hands when the crowd booed him following a time violation while Hubert Hurkacz got a warning because an umpire thought he hit a ball away in frustration following an earlier decision.
“Holger Rune had kind of like a tale of two. He went off on an umpire one day and was wrong about the call. And then the next day he literally did like shadow puppets. Like if you were to imitate a duck quack with your hand, for those only listening on audio, like your thumb goes into your other four fingers in rapid succession, he did that to the crowd, that,” Roddick added.
“And he got a warning. Hubie Hurkacz got a warning. He got a warning and the umpire’s explanation was, Oh, I felt like that was spillover from last point. No, no, no, no. There’s no build-up to a warning. It’s either a warning or it’s not. It was crazy.”
Dramas over line calls won’t be an issue from next year, as the ATP Tour is introducing electronic line calling at the big clay court tournaments which includes the Monte-Carlo Masters.
