Wimbledon rocked by double drama as cast refuses to continue
Wimbledon has been rocked by a shocking controversy in which the top seeded men’s doubles pair refuses to return to court after the controversial Hawkeye review.
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury were furious after half-hearted challenges from opponents Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin were overwhelmed by the technology used.
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This meant that instead of breaking and squaring the second set at 5-5 and having a chance to serve to take the lead, Ram and Salisbury found themselves again trailing eight behind.
The challenge from Mahut and Roger-Vasselin wasn’t asked with great confidence, and appeared to have only been done considering the set was so carefully orchestrated at the time.
Ram and Salisbury couldn’t believe it after Hawkeye showed the ball, which they believed had drifted far, had just crossed the line.
After arguing with the chair umpire, both players sat down and refused to play.
“No way, man! That’s absolutely ridiculous. No way, no way at all! We turned off the engine. We’re not in the future here, man,” Ram protested.
Salisbury was equally filthy, saying, “There’s no chance it’s in. You know it’s wrong! Can you get a supervisor?”
Neither of the pairs wanted to continue the match with Hawkeye on the spot, but both the chair umpire and the tournament supervisor eventually made it clear to the pair that it was a requirement for them to continue.
A five-minute delay occurred while officials spoke with the players, before the game resumed and the points were awarded to the French duo.
Wimbledon doubles briefly delayed by Hawkeye controversy
Even though Ram and Salisbury ended up winning in an exciting five-set epic 6-3 6-7 (1) 6-1 3-6 6-4, both remained convinced Hawkeye had made a mistake.
“We are 100% sure that Hawkeye is wrong. “Obviously we’re not going to do what we did and asked the supervisor if we weren’t completely sure the ball went out, far away,” Salisbury said.
“We saw it like that, the referee saw it like that, the linesman called him and the referee didn’t rule him out and he agreed with us.
“We couldn’t believe that they had challenged him, we went and sat down convinced that we won the game.
“I think it’s possible we all saw it wrong, the linesman, the referee, us. For us it’s not even close. They checked the hawkeye and it seemed like it was okay for the rest of the game, nothing seemed really wrong. Maybe we all need to get our eyes checked.
“We are quite upset about it and very frustrated. We were going to break and serve for the second set and we are quite frustrated. I don’t think it affected us too much, we managed to hold serve after that and went into the tie-break feeling fine.
“Some of those guys help and it almost gives them a reason to get stuck more and more into it, a reason to fight, but for me it just makes me mad and then I don’t really respond well when I feel like it. that, so I managed to get it out of my mind.”
Salisbury and Ram sealed victory to set up meetings against Max Purcell and Matt Ebden – who beat them in the Australian Open semi-finals in January.
It will be Salisbury’s third Wimbledon semifinal – his second with the Rams – and despite the controversy, he is pleased with how he finished the contest.
He said: “I think it was our first five-set win. We obviously only played five sets here and we played it a few years ago where we lost 13-12 in the fifth, but I think we are very happy with how we defended the whole game.
“They are a very tough team and we haven’t played too well against Mahut in the past, and I think they really stepped up their game in the fourth quarter. I’m just glad we got through it and played really well in the end.”
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