Nick Kyrgios takes jibe at Jack Draper after ‘horrendous’ call against Felix Auger-Aliassime at Cincinnati
Nick Kyrgios has shared his views on the controversial end to the Jack Draper-Felix Auger-Aliassime match at the Cincinnati Open as he suggested Draper “knew exactly” what happened.
Draper was serving for the match with the score 5-7, 6-4, 5-4 [40-30] when the drama unfolded as the Canadian felt his opponent “shanked” the ball on the floor during the final point.
A deep return from Auger-Aliassime landed at the British player’s feet and the Canadian felt the ball hit the frame of Draper’s racket before going into the ground and looping up and over the net.
Chair umpire Greg Allensworth declared “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m ruling that that was a fair shot. Game, set and match Draper”, much to Auger-Aliassime’s dismay as he quickly went over to the net to argue his case.
“If there was a replay I would replay it, but I don’t know … I was looking at you,” Draper said during the exchange.
Auger-Aliassime told the official: “That is horrendous what you just did. Did you not see the ball bounce on the floor? He shanked it onto the floor! We’re going to leave here, this will be everywhere and it’s going to look ridiculous.”
He added: “I’m going to ask you one more time, if you’re 100% sure that you’re not going to leave here and that you have no doubt, not one ounce of doubt in yourself that that was a clean volley winner, then I’ll shake his hand right now and the match will be over.”
Allensworth then replied: “I have to call it how I see it Felix, this is how I am and this is how I saw it. If I had a doubt I would tell you, but we can go back and look at it after the match and if I see I’m wrong I’ll admit it to you, but for now I can’t go back and look at it.”
Cincinnati News
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Kyrgios took to social media to give his opinion on the incident and he felt Draper “knew” what happened.
“Mate. Horrible call, but every player knows you know exactly where you hit it hahaha ridiculous stuff,” the Australian wrote on X.
Draper, though, insisted during a post-match interview that he was unaware of a double bounce and was prepared to replay the point.
“I serve-volleyed, he hit an amazing pass at my feet. I was shocked at the pass, I was too busy looking at him. I didn’t see what happened,” he said.
“I looked at the umpire straight away to see if he called a double bounce or not. As a player, I’m trying to focus on what I’m doing – I can’t make that call. I said when the supervisor came on that if you said it was a double bounce and he saw it clearly, I would have 100 per cent replayed the point.
“The amount of times in the last 12 months where I’ve had to do the right thing sometimes… we’ve had a long battle out here and it would be ultra-unfair on Felix if the match was won in that kind of way. I couldn’t make that call myself.”
