Peng Shuai in distress in her singles match at the US Open.
Following the officiating fiasco in the match between Caroline Wozniaki and Peng Shuai, John McEnroe made an evaluation and said the USTA leadership "horribly, badly bungled" the situation--and perhaps anyone in their right mind or any sense of tennis rules, would have to agree.
While I realize that pro rules differ from anyone else on earth, there was no excuse for today's mess. Here is the timeline of what happened:
Match score: Wozniaki leading 7-6 and 4-3 with the score 30-30.
* Peng took 50 seconds between the deuce point and the ad point without any penalty from the chair official.
* Peng stopped play after the ad point (which she lost) and it was 42 seconds before the trainer came to the court.
* 2 minutes and 50 seconds elapsed before Peng was led from the court.
* 4 minutes elapsed before the chair official announced that Peng was being evaluated.
* 5 minutes and 40 seconds elapsed when the chair official announced that Peng would be taking a 3 minute Medical Time Out.
* 10 minutes and 37 seconds elapsed before Peng came back to the court and was ready to play.
At this point, no time violations, warnings, or point penalties had been given.
* Following the playing of a couple of points, the score was again deuce. Peng again stopped play and the trainer and a bunch of others came on the court to console her.
* After 1:27 it was finally announced that Peng was retiring.
There aren't sufficient words in the English language to describe this officiating fiasco. In this instance, we will be just quote John McEnroe again--HORRIBLY, BADLY BUNGLED.
16 comments:
According to the 2014 ITF Pro Circuit Rulebook, a Medical Time-Out is allowed by the ITF Supervisor or Chair Umpire when the trainer has evaluated the player nad has determined that additional time for medical treatment is required. The MTO is limited to THREE minutes of treatment. However, at professional tournaments with prize money of $15,000 or LESS, the ITF Supervisor may extend the time allowed for treament if necessary.
A player may receive treatment for muscle cramping ONLY during the time alloated for change of ends and/or set breaks. Players may NOT receive an MTO for muscle cramping.
After completion of a Medical Timeout or medical treatment, any delay in resumption of play shall be panlized by Code Violations for Delay of Game.
Looks like the "PRO" chair umpire screwed the pooch... Not surprising.
According to WTA Rules of Tennis,
A player who has stopped play by claiming an acute medical condition, but is determined by the Primary Health Care Provider (PHCP), in conjunction with the Tournament Physician, if appropriate, to have muscle cramping, shall be ordered by the Supervisor/Referee to resume play immediately. If the player cannot continue playing due to severe muscle cramping, the player may forfeit the point or
game(s) needed to get to a change of ends or set break in order to receive treatment.* There may be a
total of two ( ) change of ends treatments for muscle cramping in a match, not necessarily consecutive. If it is determined by the Chair Umpire or Supervisor/Referee that gamesmanship was involved, then a Code Violation for Unsportsmanlike
Conduct may be issued.
Once again, the rules don't apply to pro tennis.
Probably the worst example of officiating I have ever seen--and this was a pro chair. And then they wonder why we won't hire them to do collegiate matches. Can you just imagine what some of our collegiate coaches would have done if we ignored a 50 second delay between points and then let them use game balls to warm up during the delay? It wouldn't be a pretty sight.
The chair umpire was speechless and couldn't figure out what to say, such a rookie mistake. But then again, it is a women's match. I would love to see the chair try to do what she did (or failed to do) in a men's match.
Where is the coffee cup lady? I haven't seen her mug on tv this year.
I couldn't help but notice and I keep wondering why US Open chair umpires are dressed like Popsicle vendors this year?
The USTA has come out today, trying to save face for screwing up, and are saying the heat rule in effect at the time allowed Penguin to take a medical timeout for cramping. That's bullshit! Come on, fess up and tell the world what everybody already knows, you screwed up!!!!
Funny how the situation earlier in the tournament with Steve Johnson was handled correctly.
Tournament director David Brewer met with the press afterward to explain in detail why chair umpire Engzell didn’t follow the standard protocol for cramping, which would be to launch the point penalty system. The situation was muddled by the fact that, for some reason, Engzell could’t communicate from the chair with Peng upon her original collapse, and had to climb down and go to her—an acceptable action under the circumstances, as well as under the heat rule. Funny, I was almost certain stadium court was equipped with a microphone.
I'm glad the US Open is once again the laughing stock of pro tennis.
They also put out some garbage about it being "heat related" instead of cramping. Any idiot watching that incident would know it was cramping.
What a pathetic display. Even more pathetic were the announcers claiming 20 minutes had passed in the delay when only 8 had elapsed. It's obvious the pro chairs are there to call the score, "time", initiate the replay challenge mechanism, and little else. Anything involving rules interpretation or enforcement is "bumped up" to the higher authority at the tournament level for them to botch. The lack of authority and incompetence of the chair official stands out in stark relief when anything out of the ordinary occurs at the tournament. As stated earlier in the trail, had this happened at an ITA match, the chairperson would have been eaten alive. Said chair would then have come up with some sort of reason to sue the referee.
Wonder what kind of pickle the USTA would be in if the lady had suffered the big cramp and dropped dead in front of thousands of fans and a national TV audience?
Oh well! At least the USTA got the women's final it wanted: Beauty and The Beast!
Boy, would things change if we could sue the referee.
1st of all the USTA Pro Circuit and WTA rules are not applicable...since it is a Grand Slam event, the Grand Slam rules apply. (Google them)
2nd that court is impossible to communicate on in a normal way...I.e. From the chair to the player...but then again. I suspect most of those who read this blog have never worked on that court, save for a few.
When they take 52 seconds between points the way you communicate is to say, "Time violation warning." You don't have to get out of your chair to do that since you can use the PA system to get your point across.
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