Spanish World No.28 Roberto Bautista Agut has accused tennis officials of being bias during his match against Roger Federer in the third round of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday.
The 30-year-old crashed out 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, to the 20-time grand slam champion. It was during the later stages of the match where a controversial call infuriated Bautista Agut. At 4-4 in the third set, a shot from the Spaniard was called out before being corrected. The umpire then decided for the point to be replayed, despite a video replay contradicting that decision. Under rules, points are replayed if the call impacted on a player’s shot. The replay showed that Federer hit the ball into the net before the out call was made.
“It is not the first time that favouritism has occurred,” Bautista Agut said.
“I do not think I lost by that ball, but in my opinion I do not think the referee was right there.”
“I’m a bit disgusted with the result because I think I have made merits to win or to put myself in a position to win, it was the first time I had Federer on the ropes, it was a good day to beat him and in the end he was not able to win.
“It was a very tense moment, I went 30-0, with two good serves, I was 30 equal and I felt the tension of having Federer in front of me.
“That the match was at a very critical point, a decisive moment like that, in a deuce, a point more or a point less is decisive.”
Defending champion Federer wasn’t questioned about the call the umpire made after his match. Instead the Swiss world No.2 believed his opponent got ‘tight’ towards the end. Enabling him to seal victory. This week Federer is seeking his 99th ATP title and 28th at Masters 1000 level.
“At the end he got tight. I’m happy that, because of my match yesterday (Wednesday), I was able to stay maybe more calm this time around and come up with a really good game to break at 4-All and then serve it out was great.” Federer commented about his performance.
The incident has triggered calls for video replays to be allowed in tennis matches. Following the example set by football with their VAR system. Hawk-Eye is currently in use at most professional tournaments on both the ATP and WTA tours. Although that system is only used to verify line calls and nothing else.
Federer now leads Bautista Agut 8-0 in their head-to-head. He will take on Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals on Friday.
