The chair umpire takes center stage during the second round match in Shanghai between Stan Wawrinka and Flavio Cobolli. He makes a momentous mistake.
Carlos Bernardes is an old hand at umpiring. But in the match between Stan Wawrinka and Flavio Cobolli, the Brazilian showed that even tennis umpires make mistakes despite technical assistance and under the eyes of spectators and players. In this case, it was a mistake that went unnoticed and may have decided the game.
What happened? In the third set, at 0-1, Wawrinka served and won the first point. Bernardes then communicated with the umpire and apparently forgot who had won the first point.
When Cobolli won the next rally with a great stop-ball, it should have been 15-15. But Bernardes called the score 0-30 – without anyone pointing out his mistake to him.
And so the match continued and Cobolli managed the break. It was the only one in the third set and in the end the Italian won 7-6, 6-7 and 6-3.
Kyrgios shoots against Bernardes
Neither the two players nor the organizer ATP commented on the momentous mistake after the game, but tennis pro Nick Kyrgios reacted angrily. “Bernardes should have been fired years ago. How can this happen,” the Australian raged on X.
Cobolli lost in the following round in two sets to Serbian top star Novak Djokovic.