Calls for VAR in tennis have flared up again in Cincinnati after a controversial ending to Jack Draper's third round victory.
The British number one reached the quarter-finals in Ohio after a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime.
However, that result was not the main concern of the match but the final scoring that created fierce controversy.
Accordingly, at match point, Draper seemed to have a technical shot to seal the victory with a spectacular comeback.
However, replays showed that the ball touched the ground before bouncing onto Draper's racket and flying back to the other side of the net.
As Draper celebrated, referee Greg Allensworth declared that it was a legal hit and declared Draper the winner, leaving Auger-Aliassime stunned.
Both players cautiously approached the net, Auger-Aliassime protesting the result before finally shaking Draper's hand.
"It's terrible that you just did that," the Canadian player said in an exchange with the referee.
"But don't you see the ball bouncing on the floor? The ball hit the floor and then he hit it. You will see that image will be everywhere and it will look ridiculous."
This is not the first time this week Allensworth has become the center of controversy after refusing to give Taylor Fritz points in his match with Nakashima even though the ball went out quite a distance, "hawkeye live" technology also shows that .
At that time, through the exchange between Allensworth and Fritz, he said that the American tennis player did not stop at the right time when determining the ball went out, while the automatic technology also did not notify the right time.
And because of a "technical error", that ball had to be replayed...
These latest controversial incidents have only fueled the debate over VAR in tennis. In fact, VAR has been used in the past at the Nitto ATP Finals and US Open but has not yet been implemented in the main tournament.
The problem is that, even with VAR, the system is not complete. For example, at last year's US Open, in the first round match between Andy Murray and Corentin Moutin.
At that time, Moutin objected to a phase where the ball bounced twice, but the referee had difficulty reviewing it, the incident was considered "ineffective".
After the match, Murray called it a "farce", because VAR in tennis is "advertised" as a system that allows players to protest many different decisions in a match, such as hitting errors or mistakes. Double bouncing ball.
The system uses many different angles to get the best view of the incident and the VAR referee will send video to the screen on the referee's chair and on the field. The referee will then review the video via tablet to determine whether the initial decision was wrong and should be overturned.
Then, earlier this year, Andrey Rublev was disqualified from the Dubai Championships for allegedly "insulting the line referee", despite his protesting that there had been no such words.
In such an unclear situation, the call for the application of VAR in tennis is even stronger. But until now, there has been no move to show that VAR will appear soon.
Maybe we have to wait for more controversies and a more serious nature like football!?
