Xinyu Wang didn’t see the dust fly up and German Tamara Korpatsch didn’t care.
It all led to a heated scene at Roland Garros that ended in a non-handshake.
During the third set of the second round Wednesday morning, Wang hit a long ball on the baseline that was ruled out. But she didn’t believe it was the right call and proceeded to violate a cardinal tennis rule by crossing the net to Korpatsch’s side of the court to inspect the ball mark.
The decision sparked boos among the crowd for Wang.
The two continued to disagree while closely inspecting the mark. The No. 32-seeded Chinese player eventually walked back to her side of the court and received a warning from the chair umpire.
Unlike the other Grand Slams, Roland Garros does not utilize Electronic Line Calling. Officials often inspect traces left by a ball on the clay to help them make the right call, but there is room for human error.
“There was a ball, it was really long ball from her, and I saw it out. I don’t know if the line umpires called it out or not, but there were two ball marks, actually,” Korpatsch said after the match. “And the one was the old one and the other one was the new one.
“Both of them were out, so it doesn’t matter. I didn’t know which one was the right one but the chair umpire came down and showed the mark, and it was out.”
She added she saw a Hawk-Eye replay that showed the ball was long.
“It was, like, eight millimeters out,” Korpatsch said. “Yeah, she came on my side, because she didn’t believe it. Because I think her team did, like, too much, yeah, talked like too much, because they thought it’s in… at the end, we didn’t have a handshake because she told me she’s not okay with that, with the ball marks, and everything.”
The drama didn’t stop there.
Korpatsch went on to pull off an upset win over Wang 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to reach the third round of the French Open for the first time in her career.
When meeting at the net, Korpatsch decided Wang wasn’t worth the typical sportsmanship handshake, pulling her hand away as the two exchanged fiery words again.
Boos came from the crowd yet again.
Korpatsch said she pulled away because she felt like Wang was accusing her of cheating.
“I think she said, like, something that she thought that I’m not a fair player or something like that, but we have one of the best chair umpires on the court, and I don’t know how to cheat, honestly,” Korpatsch said. “There are many cameras on court and they can check everything.
“Honestly, for me, it would be embarrassing to cheat like that. I’m serious, I’m honest, that when I was running, I thought the ball is out, and I was, like, okay, which one is it? I didn’t know which mark, but for that, we have the referee.”
Korpatsch admitted she was surprised over the situation with Wang.
“Normally we have a good relationship and we are not ememies,” she said.
Korpatsch moves on to play No. 7 Elina Svitolina next in Paris.