Andy Roddick believes that both Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic made fair points during a contentious video review incident at the China Open.
During Djokovic‘s quarter-final win over Zverev, the Serbian expertly returned a booming serve, and then the German hooked the next shot into the tramlines.
Zverev spoke to chair umpire Adel Nour, then he requested a video review to check if a courtside LED advertising board changed during the point, and when that was found to be the case, the official ruled it was a let.
To Djokovic, Zverev should have made the request straight away, rather than waiting until after the point. However, the 29-year-old was well within his rights to do so, and the point was eventually replayed.
At the time, Djokovic said to Zverev, “You missed the forehand, and then you challenged,” to which the US Open champion replied, “Yeah, but I didn’t know if I could challenge or not, that’s why I came to him and asked him if I could challenge.”
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Djokovic described this as “one of the most stupid change of rules that I’ve heard in my life” and to hammer home his assertion, he said, “We can play a 30-shot rally, and he can lose the point, and he’s like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna challenge now’.”
Former world No 1 Roddick felt that umpire Nour didn’t cover himself in glory over this hindrance incident but both players made valid points.
He said on Served, “They are all right by the way. They disagreed in this moment but that’s not a testy exchange. What Sascha says makes a lot of sense. I didn’t know if I could so I simply asked after the point.
“Basically Novak was saying the rule is stupid, you should have to stop. I don’t disagree with him and Novak was making a judgment on the actual ruling and it seemed like Sascha was looking for clarification on what he was allowed to challenge.”
Roddick agreed with his producer, Mike Hayden, that the umpire should have said, ‘You should have challenged right after you saw it’.
The American then replied, “And Sascha would have walked back by the way. He would have been p***** that it changed and would have said, ‘Who did this?’ But they are both correct. That’s a ridiculous thing.”
Previously, players had to request a video review during the point but now, that can happen after the point.
Roddick said that players are unlikely to be completely up to date with the latest rule changes, it takes a while to fully get to grips with it, and therefore did not blame Zverev for not knowing until afterwards.
He added, “Novak’s point about he can play a 30-ball rally and then challenge it and the guy went like this (nodding). That’s so stupid. No you can’t. Once people get the first time through the lineup with the new rule, they need to learn that they should challenge right away.”
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