-
9 hours ago
Reilly Opelka has called on the ATP to suspend chair umpire Greg Allensworth after he received a code violation at the Dallas Open for confronting a spectator who he claimed was deliberately coughing to interrupt his serve.
The American, 27, beat Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in a last-16 match that lasted two and a half hours, but was annoyed by a spectator when he was serving for the match.
At 30-30 he stopped mid-serve and went to speak to a fan and asked if he was coughing on purpose then suggested the fan leave the arena in an expletive-laden outburst.
Allensworth announced a code violation then a point penalty for two audible obscenities after Opelka approached the chair and argued his case.
The ATP rulebook states the first offence leads to a warning and the second results in a point penalty.
“Greg Allensworth is the worst ref [umpire] in the ATP,” said wildcard Opelka after the match.
“We were talking about him in the locker room, all the players, it really is a coincidence about two days ago [we were talking about the worst umpire on the tour and he] is the worst one.
“Allensworth is real bad, he almost changed the outcome of that match, just because he doesn’t really know what he is doing.”
Andy Murray was frustrated in May when he said “it’s basically snowing out here” but Allensworth insisted his first-round tie at the Geneva Open continued.
He was also the umpire when Jack Draper beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in controversial circumstances at the Cincinnati Open in August.
Opelka added: “He got emotional, he got very tense and frantic and he couldn’t give me an answer.
“He didn’t tell that guy to shut up. He [the heckler] was doing it for three points, he didn’t do his job so I had to tell him ‘get out of here’, the guy was being quite rude.
“It shouldn’t be one-sided traffic, if you want to be disrespectful to me, I can’t just be a punching bag and if the ref isn’t doing his job and he penalises me it is not a good look.
“It almost changed the outcome of the match. It was a big point and he didn’t do his job then penalised me for it, so he did two things wrong.
“I hope the ATP penalises him, maybe sideline him for a few tournaments.”
BBC Sport has approached the ATP Tour for comment.
There was little between the Opelka and Norrie, with both winning 71% of their points on serve and sharing the 202 points played equally.
Opelka found the edge, though, recovering from a set down to win a second-set tie-break before breaking in the third game of the final set.
Norrie held his serve after that but was unable to recover the break.
