More players want electronic officiating help at French Open

d U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem and man he beat at French Open on Friday, . 28 seed Casper Ruud, to growing chorus of players who think electronic line-calling should come to clay-court tennis.

It’s t a new idea. And re are questions about accuracy of that sort of system on clay, where red dust shifts, making it harder for machine to be as right as it can be on hard courts.

Still, just in past couple of days at Roland Garros, top-10 seeds Stefas Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov have raised issue, as did 2018 semifinalist Marco Checcinato, who grumbled about it during third set of his third-round loss Friday.

“Today in my match re was a mistake -- in my favor actually,” two-time French Open runner-up Thiem said after beating Ruud 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. “Casper showed me mark on his phone after match.”

Thiem played at a tournament in Brazil where a system fine-tuned for use on clay, specifically, was tested.

“re were t any issues,” he said. “So I hope that next year, we will have it in every clay-court tournament.”

After Ruud disputed a couple of calls with chair umpire, some buddies back home in rway who were watching match took a picture of one of ball marks on TV sceen and sent it to his phone.

“It was,” he insisted, “quite clearly out.”

HALEP TURNS IT AROUND

A year ago, Simona Halep’s French Open title defense ended in Court Philippe Chatrier with a lopsided loss to American teenr Amanda Anisimova in quarterfinals. y met again Friday -- same tournament, same stium, similar scoreline -- but this time it was Halep who dominated, winning 6-0, 6-1 in less than an hour.

“I was playing really b,” said Anisimova, a fair assessment given that she me 32 unforced errors, 25 more than . 1-seeded Halep. “It’s been one of worst matches I have played in a while. I was just making mistakes all over place.”

key, believe or t, might very well have been second game.

“Very important,” Halep called it.

She double-faulted twice, helping 25th-seeded Anisimova accumulate five break points.

But Anisimova couldn’t convert any of those chances and never held ar break point.

w comes ar rematch for Halep, against ar 19-year-old: Her fourth-round opponent is Iga Swiatek.

In 2019, Halep won ir fourth-round match in Paris 6-1, 6-0.

“I kw for sure that my game is better,” Swiatek said, “so hopefully this match is going to be longer than 40 minutes.”

BREAKING TIE

Thirty minutes; 36 points.

Lorenzo Sonego and 27th-seeded American Taylor Fritz engd in quite a tiebreaker Friday, longest ever played in a men's singles match at French Open and tied for second-longest at any Grand Slam tournament.

Each man held more than a half-dozen sets points. It finally ended when Sonego took last two points with drop shots and ended match, winning 7-6 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (17) to get to fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament for first time.

“I’m going to be up all night,” Fritz said, “thinking about what I could have done different.”

only longer Grand Slam tiebreaker came at Australian Open in 2007, when Andy Roddick and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played one that lasted 38 points.

Im credits: AP

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