Stefanos Tsitsipas shouts ~ Aussie Press cries - 'bias in Umpiring' !

Umpires are judges on-field, but their decisions are judged by people off-field and commented upon – now a days, technology does expose some howlers ! ~ and Aussies could complain to have Umpires changed !

The news is - Umpires Joel Wilson and Chris Gaffaney will not be allowed to participate any further in the Ashes.  The first three Tests witnessed numerous umpiring errors. Wilson got eight of his decisions wrong at Edgbaston, while Gaffaney had seven decisions overturned at Headingley.  Veteran Marais Erasmus and rookie Ruchira Palliyaguruge will be the new umpires in the fourth Test at Old Trafford, beginning on September 4, Wednesday. The third umpire in charge will be Kumar Dharmasena.  While Erasmus has also been appointed for the fifth Test at the Oval, Dharmasena and Palliyaguruge will be swapping roles in the same. Umpiring has been a huge talking point this series due to several on-field decisions being overturned by the Decision Review System (DRS).

Away, former Australian Test fast bowler Paul Wilson will stand in his first Test match next month while leading female umpires Claire Polosak and Eloise Sheridan continue to blaze a trail in the sport. Wilson will become Australia's 90^th  umpire to reach the pinnacle of the sport for officials and stand in a Test match when he takes the field for the one-off Bangladesh v Afghanistan Test match in Chittagong next week. He's already umpired 28 ODI matches and 11 T20 internationals. He earned a Baggy Green playing one Test for Australia in Kolkata in 1998.

.. ..  media is abuzz of the argument that came midway through the fourth set of Tsitsipas' 6-4 6-7 (5) 7-6 (7) 7-5 loss to Andrey Rublev, a day when he and fellow young star Dominic Thiem both lost in the first round for the second straight major tournament.  Tsitsipas opened his grand slam season by beating Roger Federer en route to the Australian Open semifinals. He fell at Wimbledon to Thomas Fabbiano, who then sent Thiem to another quick exit by beating the No 4 seed 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-2 on a day when four top-10 seeds in the bottom half of the bracket were upset.

The touted bad boy of Tennis Nick Kyrgios  lashed tennis greats and "irrelevant" critics in an explosive precursor to his US Open title tilt in New York. Kyrgios lit up social media after taking offence to The Tennis Channel posting a comment "You never know what to expect when it comes to @NickKyrgios. Will he boom or bust this tournament??"  The remarks accompanied footage of former world No 1s Jim Courier and Martina Navratilova discussing Kyrgios's prospects at the last grand slam of the year. Courier and Navratilova both addressed Kyrgios's conduct, after he was fined US$113,000 this month for his extraordinary meltdown in Cincinnati, where he branded chair umpire Fergus Murphy a "f....ing tool" and a "potato".

At Leeds, astonishing Ben Stokes finished with 135 not out from 219 balls, with 11 fours and nine sixes. At one stage he was three not out from 73 balls. When time was running out, he went nuclear. Towards the end  Stokes chopped the ball to backward point and again changed his mind about a single, Lyon fumbled a straightforward chance to run a helpless Leach out at the bowler’s end.  Then, with Australia having just wasted their review for a hopeless LBW appeal against Leach, Lyon trapped a sweeping Stokes in front of the stumps.  It was Umpire Joel Wilson - a new addition to the ICC’s elite panel, who has had a record eight decisions overturned.    The replays clearly showed that a successful review would have ended the contest but Tim Paine had already ruined Aussie’s chance ! ~ Australian press went all out attack against the Umpire and has now ensured that he will not stand further in the Ashes.  Cannot help imagining what when India faced such poor and biased Umpiring in their tours down under.

.. .. getting back to that Stefanos Tsitsipas incident – he  accused a U.S. Open chair umpire of having a bias against him during a tirade in which he told the official, "You're all weirdos!" Tsitsipas told Damien Dumusois that the cause of his bias was "because you're French probably and you're all weirdos!"  Dumusois told Tsitsipas it was time to play, but Tsitsipas was still reaching into his bag for a new headband and screamed at Dumusois that he still needed time to change. Dumusois responded that Tsitsipas would be penalized. "I don't care," Tsitsipas replied. "Do whatever you want, because you're the worst." "I don't know what you have against me," Tsitsipas continued. "Because you're French probably and you're all weirdos! You're all weirdos!"

Dumusois is indeed French. Tsitsipas had been angry that Dumusois believed he was getting coaching during the match from his father, Apostolos, which is not allowed. "The chair umpire was very incorrect in what he was telling me during the match," Tsitsipas said afterward. "I don't know what this chair umpire has in specific against my team, but he's been complaining and telling me that my team talks all of the time when I'm out on the court playing. He's very — I don't know. I believe he's not right, because I never hear anything of what my team says from the outside." Tsitsipas added that he thought tennis needed more umpires who are fair to all players. The two-time French Open runner-up said he was battling an illness leading into the tournament and said he was exhausted after two sets.

Nearly a year ago, the tennis umpire Carlos Ramos and Serena Williams clashed during her loss to Naomi Osaka in the women’s final of the 2018 United States Open. Ramos has yet to work another match involving Williams, and it will not happen at this year’s U.S. Open either. In an interview this week, Stacey Allaster, the chief executive for professional tennis at the United States Tennis Association, confirmed that Ramos would return as part of the umpiring staff at this year’s Open but would not be assigned to matches involving Williams or her older sister Venus. “We don’t need to go there,” Allaster said in a telephone interview. “There are more than 900 matches here over the three weeks, and there are lots of matches for Carlos to do.” Allaster said tournament officials did not want to create a distraction by putting Williams and Ramos back on the same court.

Serena Williams was later fined $17,000 by the U.S. Open. She was penalized by Ramos for verbal abuse after calling him “a liar” and “a thief,” rejecting his judgment that her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, was breaking the rules by communicating with her during the match. Mouratoglou later admitted that he had been sending Williams signals, but Williams has said that she never saw them. She also smashed her racket on the court, incurring an automatic penalty. A coaching violation can be called even if a player does not see the coaching. Ramos also called a coaching violation against Venus Williams for receiving hand signals from her coach at the time, David Witt, during the 2016 French Open.

Opinion remains deeply divided about the way the 2018 U.S. Open final was handled. Although there was criticism of Ramos’s performance from the women’s tour chief Steve Simon, the International Tennis Federation, the sport’s global governing body, offered Ramos its full support.

~ interesting to read so much of bias .. ..

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

29^th Aug 2019.