Dubai Sees Another Controversy Between Murray and Berdych

Written by: Staff on 1st March 2012

Dubai Sees Another Controversy Between Murray and Berdych |

Controversy seems to dog recent confrontations between Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych. The latest reason for argument blew up just before the world no.4 moved through to the semi-final of the Dubai Duty Free Championships and both players called for a review to the ATP World Tour rulebook.

Murray had squandered three match points but the score stood at Advantage Berdych when Scot hit what he believed to be a winning serve. The line judge called the ball long and television cameras proved the Czech had struck the ball before the late call was made.

A Hawk-Eye challenge then showed Murray’s serve to be on the line and rather than call for the players to replay the point, the score was deuce.

“If we look at all the rule books we see that if it’s not a clear ace there should be a repeat of point,” insisted a hard done by Berdych who eventually lost out 6-3,7-5. “I have no idea what Mohamed did. He is the best umpire on tour and I’ve never had anything like that with him before. I was so shocked.”

Berdych insisted he asked for the intervention of supervisor Gerry Armstrong but the Englishman was not immediately available. “The supervisor should be on court and he should see the situation,” continued the angry Czech. “When the players make a mistake, they have no chance and get whatever; point penalty, penalty, fined, whatever. But when the referee makes a mistake there is no other excuse.”

While Berdych approached the umpire’s chair and engaged in several minutes of heated discussion with Lahyani, Murray adopted a silent mode at the other end of the court.

Later Murray said: “It’s a bad rule, for a start and one I have a big problem with. I don’t like it for reasons like that. It’s a bad rule, because it comes down to kind of how the umpire sees it. They don’t always see it the same way as the players do.”

Last time the pair met at last October’s BNP Paribas Masters at Paris-Bercy, Murray was angered when umpire Fergus Murphy provided Berdych with three new balls to play while facing two break points.

“Tomas decided that the balls were too soft—which they weren’t,” said Murray after his 4-6,7-6,6-4 defeat. “The umpire gave him three brand new balls to serve with. . . I wasn’t aware that they were just changing three brand new balls. Then that totally changed the way the ball plays and the court plays. That was what happened. I just asked, ‘Is it not normal to let the opponent also see the balls?”

Murray also got a warning in the process. “Actually I said bollocks to the chair umpire and that got me a warning. I have been to watch a lot of football matches and you say a lot worse than that and you don’t get yellow card,” he said.

Topics: Berdych, Dubai, Murray