Iga Swiatek saw her French Open reign ended by Aryna Sabalenka after being knocked out at the semi-final stage. And the Pole, who has won the last three editions of the tournament, suggested the umpire had favoured her opponent during the last-four contest.
Swiatek arrived in Paris off the back of some shaky form but dropped just one set on her way to the semis. Her clash with Sabalenka proved to be a tight affair in the early stages as the Belarusian clinched the first set on a tiebreak. The reigning champion hit back by winning the second set 6-4 but was then humiliated in the final set as she lost it 6-0.
During the second set, Sabalenka hit a serve long at 2-4, with Swiatek missing the return. The officials missed the fault, however, with the Polish star forced to ask umpire Kader Nouni to come and check the mark.
But she wasn’t granted her wish as the umpire argued she had taken too long to request an inspection and maintained she was looking at the wrong mark anyway.
Hawkeye then showed that Swiatek had in fact been correct with her assertion as the serve had indeed landed out.
And Swiatek was in no mood to let the incident lie after the match as she explained: “He was coming down to check every mark when Aryna wanted to, even when the outs were like that (gestures).
“When I had a mark that was out, he was convincing me that I only came there because I saw that my return was out, and I framed the return. I knew from the beginning that it’s going to be out, you know.
“I didn’t really look at the ball. I just went to check the mark, and I saw the mark was out. I want him to come down, but he didn’t. So I don’t think that was fair, especially when he came down like every time Aryna asked him to. I don’t get it, but I don’t really care.”
Swiatek had made her thoughts on the incident perfectly clear to Nouni during the match itself as she hissed: “That’s not fair.”
And TNT Sports commentator Naomi Cavaday said at the time: “Swiatek thinks she has a mark, but I think the umpire is saying it’s a different mark. Interesting. He’s saying, ‘Nope, I’m not coming down, you took too long.’
“I think different umpires react differently in these situations. You do feel like on the clay, particularly, players get a lot more time. He’s having none of it there.”
