Jack Draper, the British men’s No. 1, says he is hurt by the negative reactions he has received and questions about his integrity following his controversial match point during his fourth-round win over Felix Auger-Aliassime at the Cincinnati Open. Draper says he hopes the incident will lead to tennis embracing video replay technology.
“I’ve always valued myself for being honest and a good person,” Draper said. “Forget tennis — that’s one of the most important things in my life to me. So to see that, and to see people talking negatively about you for the first time — and questioning your integrity and stuff like that — it’s obviously hard to watch.
“I don’t blame people for doing that. Of course, if you watch it in slow motion from the side, it’s very clear that it’s an illegal shot. There’s no doubt about it. But when you’re in the moment and you’re serving wide and the player hits a 95 mph ball at your feet, you just put your racket down and I didn’t know what was happening. I looked straight at the umpire. I think I tapped it because I thought it was going into the bottom of the net, and then it hit the net and went over. It was just a split second of madness.”
Draper attempted to cap off an excellent performance against Auger-Aliassime with a serve and volley, but instead of hitting a forehand half volley, Draper inadvertently grounded the ball, which bounced and dribbled over the net. The umpire, Greg Allensworth, missed the double bounce, and a frustrated Auger-Aliassime patiently explained why Draper should have lost the point.
Draper had offered to replay the point if they could view the video recording, but he maintained he wasn’t sure what had happened and was ultimately declared the winner.
The British player said: “The way [Auger-Aliassime] dealt with it, obviously on the pitch, but also in the dressing room, obviously he had seen the replay and probably had his questions – ‘You knew’ and things like that – but he was classy about it and had every respect for him. Because if I had been in that situation that he was in, I don’t know how I would have reacted, and I don’t know how a lot of people would have reacted.”
After a few fairly low-key years on the ATP tour, this was Draper’s first taste of controversy. In addition to the likes of Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas commenting on the point or questioning Draper’s decision not to hand it over, there has also been considerable criticism on social media.
“I thought about it non-stop for four days,” Draper said. “I was really upset about it — like I said, it’s something that I really, I think is more important than anything else, it’s respect, it’s honesty, it’s fair play and all that stuff. I’ve done it before on tour, when I might have given up a second serve because there was a loud noise or something. And I always play according to those things.
“But honestly, at that moment I couldn’t do anything because I didn’t know – that was the honest truth. And I think anyone would be lying if they said they weren’t hurt by the many comments saying you’re a cheater, you’re a liar. And I would have done this, and I would have done that. It’s hard to know what to do in a situation like that and it’s good because it’s my first experience with negativity and criticism, and that’s all part of being an elite athlete.”
Draper said he hopes the situation will help encourage the use of video replays for refereeing. While the US Open has allowed players to request video replays since last year, it’s not available elsewhere on the tour: “Overall, it’s a good experience for everyone and a good way to show that we really need VAR technology and hope that this situation doesn’t happen so that tennis is completely fair.”
Aside from the controversy, Draper’s quarter-final run in Cincinnati, which included a win over Tsitsipas, was another positive step forward. He has qualified for the US Open for the first time in his career and, with Andy Murray’s retirement, he is now firmly in the spotlight as Britain’s highest-ranked player. The 25th-ranked player faces a tough first-round clash with China’s talented Zhang Zhizhen.
Draper arrives in New York following a significant change to his team, having split with Wayne Ferreira after working with the South African since June alongside his regular coach James Trotman.
“I always wanted Trotts to be the one to lead what I was doing,” he said. “And I just felt like it wasn’t as easy as I wanted it to be. I wanted one voice in my team and I think it was probably the right thing to part ways with Wayne and keep it the way I want it as a player. That said, my time with Wayne was great.”