Ben Shelton spent very little time on court on Day 5 of Wimbledon, as he sealed a spot in the third round with a clinical win over Rinky Hijikata. The match was suspended on Thursday, with Shelton about to serve for the match. As the American approached the service line at 9:29 p.m. local time, the umpire suddenly cancelled the match.
This drew loud jeers from the crowd and left Shelton visibly frustrated. In light of this, one tennis insider has given his take on why the match had to be suspended.
What Robbie Koenig Has Cited as Cause for Controversial Suspension of Ben Shelton Match
Tennis insider Robbie Koenig, who was commentating the match, has shed some light on the umpire’s decision to interrupt Shelton’s match when the American about to serve to seal the win.
Koenig, a retired professional tennis player from South Africa who is now a tennis commentator and analyst, said that there wasn’t enough light for ELC to accurately call the lines.
Wimbledon has implemented the Electronic line calling (ELC) technology on all courts, bringing to an end the role of the line judge after 147 years. The system was created by Hawk-Eye. Notably, Hawk-Eye replays have been used in tennis since the US Open in 2006, and the ELC system allows Hawk-Eye to monitor calls in real time.
The ELC system made its debut, as an experiment, at the ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan in 2018 and has been widely adopted by the ATP Tour this year.
What Ben Shelton Said Has Said About Having to Play for a Second Consecutive Day
In his post-match press conference, Shelton admitted that stopping play as he was about to serve for the match wasn’t “ideal.”
“I thought we could have stopped earlier,” he said. “My opponent was complaining since the end of the second set. It seemed like there were better times if they knew they were gonna stop it.”
Shelton continued, “I don’t think that physically there’s any big deal for me, playing one game, but it’s never ideal mentally having to wake up another day and know it’s a match day. Obviously, I went out there prepared to play two-and-a-half sets.”
Shelton also admitted that the umpire had informed him that the Hawk-Eye would be going down moments ahead of the suspension.
“Yeah, he said it was a five-minute warning until the Hawkeye was going down, and that was, like, including the changeover, so, there wouldn’t be enough time to complete the game. I was telling him, ‘I only need 60 seconds.’
The American, seeded 10th at the tournament, will next face Márton Fucsovics in his Round 3 encounter.
