‘Additional angle’: Umpire’s ‘mind-blowing’ error explained

The US Tennis Association has acknowledged the wrong call was made on an illegal shot during a third-round US Open match between Anna Kalinskaya and Beatriz Haddad Maia because the chair umpire was not shown the relevant replay by the video review official.
In just the third game of the match, Kalinskaya, a Russian, hit a drop shot that Haddad Maia, a Brazilian, ran forward to try to reach.
She hit the ball just at about the same time as it was landing on the court; the ball went over the net, and Kalinskaya, seemingly distracted because she thought there was something wrong with Haddad Maia’s reply, awkwardly swung her racquet and missed.
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Chair umpire Miriam Bley awarded the point to Haddad Maia. Kalinskaya challenged under a video review system added to some courts at the US Open last year for just this sort of dispute.
The chair umpire in the US Open match between Beatriz Haddad Maia and Anna Kalinskaya incorrectly ruled the Brazilian made this shot. Stan
The match was delayed for four minutes while chair umpire Miriam Bley watched a replay — also displayed on the Armstrong scoreboards that spectators see — of Haddad Maia making contact with the ball.
The replays shown on the broadcast appeared to show the ball first bouncing off the frame of Haddad Maia’s racquet, and then onto the court and then over the net, which means the point should have gone to the Russian.
However, USTA spokesman Brendan McIntyre said not all the replays shown on the broadcast were available to Bley, which led to the incorrect call being made.
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Anna Kalinskaya remonstrating with a chair umpire over a call she made her match against Beatriz Haddad Maia. Stan
“After the review was complete, an additional angle was seen on the broadcast,” USTA spokesman Brendan McIntyre said.
“The chair did not see this footage prior to making the call.”
McIntyre said the tournament referee’s office “has reinforced” to the people who send replays to officials during a match that all “applicable” angles should be passed along.
After Bley told the players that Haddad Maia would keep that point, Kalinskaya walked away shaking her head.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as we have just seen on the video review, to me, it would appear that the call was correct, and that the ball touched the racket before it touched the ground a second time,” Bley told the crowd, drawing some boos.
“Therefore, the original call stands.”
It drew disbelief in the commentary box too.
“I mean that is mind-blowing, I have to say,” commentator Nick Lester said.
Haddad Maia took the next point, too, and the game, and there were more boos as the two went to the sideline for the changeover.
Haddad Maia ended up winning the match 6-3, 6-1.
The video dispute system is not in place for in-or-out line calls, but other things such as whether there was an extra bounce, if a player was hindered or, as was the case in this instance, whether a ball went off someone’s racquet and landed first on that player’s side of the court before going over the net. That’s known as a foul shot.
McIntyre said this was the fifth use of video review of this year’s US Open. Most players think all tournaments should use that kind of technology to aid chair umpires in making calls.
– Additional reporting by Damien McCartney