Late yesterday evening one of the most interesting matches took place between our Fabio Fognini and Daniel Evans. Nice challenge, hard fought with the Ligurian tennis player who won after a real battle in three hard-fought sets, earning the pass to the next round (which he will play, rain permitting, today evening).
During the match, however, there was a case very similar to the affair between Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas, an alleged serious error by the chair umpire Lahyani which certainly influenced the match. At 3 to 1 for Fognini in the third and decisive set the British tennis player had a break point.
Good serve and a volley from Fabio who sends it incredibly wide or at least that’s how it seems at first glance and also in the eyes of an incredulous Evans with Lahyani who instead concedes the point. There was a lot of controversy given the absence of the falcon and the ball which seemed out of sight for Evans was instead considered good by the chair umpire and the score was 40-40.
Reviewing the replay provided by the director, the shot actually seems to be off, a very important error for the purposes of the match which Fognini fortunately brought home with the result 6-2. On that occasion Fognini still suffered the break but the error caused tension and frustration in his opponent, who was clearly unnerved by all this.
Note the different reaction between Evans here and Jannik Sinner’s in Monte-Carlo: the blue tennis player let it go without batting an eyelid while the wild Brit got furious with the chair umpire and shouted several times.
A serious mistake in Rome, but this time in favor of the blue colours. Or at least that’s how it seems. Here is the video of the disputed point:
