The ATP Tour has released a statement after Taylor Fritz was the victim of a questionable call

The ATP Tour has released a statement after Taylor Fritz was the victim of a questionable call. The ATP has updated their rules after a moment of controversy in Taylor Fritz’s Cincinnati Open match. The world No. 12 kicked off when the umpire refused to award him a point he should have won after a technology glitch. And the men’s tennis tour has now clarified that the same mistake won’t happen in future after Fritz’s fellow players slammed the decision on social media. There are no line judges in Cincinnati, and electronic line calling is used instead. But when the system failed to call a ball out, there was drama in the second set of Fritz’s match against Brandon Nakashima. Nakashima sent a ball clearly outside the court but the automatic calls failed to kick in and the rally continued. Umpire Gregory Allensworth then yelled “stop, stop!” to the players and called a let. He radioed Hawkeye officials for an explanation and Fritz stormed up to the chair, questioning why it had been given as a let when he clearly won the point because his opponent’s ball was out. Allensworth explained that things would have been different if Fritz stopped the point himself immediately but the American No. 1 argued that was irrelevant with automatic calling.

“Don’t tell me to stop the point when we have electronic line calling,” he shot back. “I understand, but that’s how it works; you could’ve stopped the point and we could’ve looked at it then,” the umpire remarked, alluding to the missed call. Fritz said that Allensworth could also have stopped the protest, but the official told him that he “can’t do that” Instead, the argument was reiterated. Fritz went on to take the set, but Nakashima won 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4). The ATP has since investigated the issue and modified the regulations, confirming that there will be no more replays for missed calls. It indicates that under the new rules, Fritz would have won the point.

“ATP Officiating Update: Following recent technical issues with Live ELC in Montreal and Cincinnati, we have thoroughly reviewed our protocols.” Going forward, if the Review Official finds during a rally that a ball went out earlier in the point (but was not called by the system), that judgement will stand,” the men’s tennis tour stated on X (previously known as Twitter).

Professional athletes will be relieved to hear the news after the decision prompted outrage on social media. “If you had halted the point. Denis Shapovalov tweeted, “I can’t anymore,” after seeing a video of the event. Thanasi Kokkinakis responded, “Lack of common sense is crazy.”

Fritz also joined in, saying, “Playing with automatic line calling, and the guy wants me to stop the point man.”

On Instagram, former world number one Daniil Medvedev commented on the same video. “Ridiculous decision… ball out, point over, point to Fritz. “How is this not the result?” he wrote.

Frances Tiafoe, who had a similar circumstance at last week’s Masters 1000 in Canada, commented: “Bro, this has to be figured out. This happened to me last week. Do better, @atptour. The tour listened, and their pleas were ultimately answered with the new rule amendment.