Greg Rusedski has questioned the logic behind the video replay rules that have sparked a lot of debate at the China Open.
Despite hitting a forehand into the tramlines, Alexander Zverev was allowed to ask for a video review in his quarter-final match against Novak Djokovic due to the LED advertising boards flickering during the point.
Replays confirmed that the board changed during the German’s service motion and umpire Adel Nour ruled that the point should be replayed, much to Djokovic’s chagrin.
The 39-year-old, who went on to win the match and the tournament, then exclaimed, “This must be one of the most stupid change of rules that I’ve heard in my life.”
While these are the current rules, former British No 1 Rusedski felt that if a player can review something after they have lost a point, then that is “utterly wrong”.
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He said on Off Court with Greg Rusedski, “I’m not so sure about that. You don’t play the full point out and then say, ‘Oh, can I play it again?’ From my point of view, if you want to play the point again, you’ve got to stop it before the point is finished.
“That’s always been the rule before. If there’s interference or anything happened, you have to stop immediately. And if you don’t stop immediately and you lose the point and it has to replay it, I think that’s just completely and utterly wrong.”
A similar incident happened during Coco Gauff’s third round win over 16-year-old Xinran Sun, with the American calling for a review just before the rising Chinese star hit a winning pass.
Footage showed that the boards on the sides of the court kept changing during the rally, before Gauff eventually stopped playing. The review went her way but later on, the American was racially abused on social media, during which time she provided the lowdown on what the rules are.
“I saw it flicker in the beginning of the point but was not sure if that is what I actually saw,” she wrote on X. “We are told before the matches we are allowed to continue to finish play so KEEP IN MIND I am thinking about all of this while I’m playing the point.
“Anything can be challenged after the point is over (as in most sports you can review a call after the play is over, I personally think [this] is the correct rule). If I would’ve lost the point my opponent is also free to do the same thing and ask for a replay and she would’ve been completely in her right to do so.
“When it flickered again I raised my hands before she hit her shot because this is when I was sure I saw the light flicker and it wasn’t my mind doing tricks lol (which again doesn’t matter because anything can be challenged after the point).”
Video review technology was introduced at Wimbledon for the first time this year, allowing players to challenge certain calls made by the chair umpire.
That is already the case at the Australian Open and US Open but it seems some past and present players are not best pleased with this rule in its current guise.
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