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‘I felt like I was crazy,’ says WTA player after umpire miscalls strange game


Astra Sharma was confused when the umpire called a game for her opponent when Sharma led. It was at a WTA 250 tournament in Bogota, Colombia.

WTA player Astra Sharma was on the receiving end of a bizarre mishap at the Copa Colsanitas in Bogota, Colombia yesterday when she lost a game where she was actually ahead in the score, but the umpire completely missed it.

“I knew I hadn’t lost that many points,” the Australian tweeted in a long thread about what took place in her match against Giulia Gatto-Monticone.

“I tried to argue with him and he said that he couldn’t remember how the points went but neither could I, so there’s nothing he could do,” she added.

At 1-1 in the deciding set, Gatto-Monticone was serving at 0-30 when one of her shots sailed long. Umpire David Armenta Castro got out of his chair to check the mark, with commentators seeming to believe that it was confirmed long, with the electronic scoreboard on the broadcast suggesting as such, making the score 0-40.

However, the umpire called the score as not only incorrect, but completely flipping the balance of the score to 30-15 in favour of Gatto-Monticone. Seemingly focused on the point, Sharma showed no reaction.

Sharma returned Gatto-Monticone’s next serve into the net, making the true score 15-40, but the umpire called the score as 40-15. Gatto-Monticone then hit long, meaning the game should have ended and gone to Sharma, but the umpire called it as 40-30 for Gatto-Monticone. Sharma and Gatto-Monticone both showed no blatant signs of disagreement.

Finally, Sharma hits a ball long, which in the eyes of the umpire meant that the game went to Gatto-Monticone. At this point, when the umpire calls the game for Gatto-Monticone, Sharma is visibly taken aback, stopping at the baseline and looking off to the side. Meanwhile, the commentators are bemused.

Sharma then goes on to argue her case to the umpire. The video below shows what occurred up until the game was called for Gatto-Monticone. Sharma went on to lose the final set 1-6.

In tweets following the match Sharma said she felt “helpless”, “crazy” and “stupid” at the time of the incident, explaining her side of what happened in a long twitter thread, outlined at the bottom of this article.

She even called the WTA supervisor to the court at the time, with Sharma “[they said] I should learn my lesson and focus more on the score instead of my tennis in the future.”

“My confusion is not an excuse,” the Australian added.

In another tweet, Sharma said that she has reached out to the WTA and that they have responded telling her that they will help in filing a complaint.


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