Cameron Norrie’s Roland-Garros campaign has again attracted controversy after the British player was booed for continuing to play through a double bounce.
During the third set of his second-round 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 win against French qualifier Lucas Pouille, Norrie, up two sets to love at the time, raced to get his racquet to a sliced forehand drop shot from the Frenchman but it bounced twice before Norrie made his return.
Pouille hit his next shot out, handing Norrie a break point, with the home crowd coming down hard on the Brit as their local hope protested to the umpire.
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“It touched the floor!” Pouille told the official who stuck to her decision despite the reaction from spectators at Court Suzanne Lenglen.
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When replays were shown on the big screen Pouille was proven to be correct as the ball was seen clearly hitting the clay surface twice before Norrie got his racquet to it.
“Oh wow, that’s a real misjudgement there from the umpire,” Eurosport commentator Yasmin Clarke said.
“That was clearly a double bounce. Lucas Pouille stopped.
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“Understandably, there’s a sense of aggrievement from the French,” fellow commentator Paul Hand added.
“But to be fair to Norrie, when you’re sprinting flat out, it’s difficult to see. He would have just lunged at that and assumed perhaps that he made it.
“The umpire didn’t see the double bounce, that’s for sure. We had the luxury of the slow-mo replay.”
Clarke added: “To be honest I don’t think she was watching; I think she was looking at Lucas Pouille, which is why she missed it.”
After the point stood, more boos rained down on Norrie as he converted the break point and moved onto the final set.
When he won the match, defeating the Frenchman in one hour and 45 minutes to make it to the third round for the third year in a row, the crowd let him have it again.
Norrie admitted he thought the ball had bounced twice when speaking to reporters post-match.
“I saw the ball in the end. It was spinning back, so I was, like, maybe there’s a chance I got it,” he said.
“Then I just watched it now just before coming here, and I think it looks like it did bounce twice. But yeah, for me there was a bit of doubt there.
“I think it’s up to the umpire to call that, and she was right there in front of that and it was right there in front of her and close to her.
“When I was going ahead, I didn’t know, so I continued the point. But I think it’s on her to make those decisions.
“The other day I had one against me, and then looks like today I had one for me. It’s a bit disappointing how it goes like that, but it is what it is. I just continue playing.”
The win caps off a memorable time in Paris so far which has seen Norrie docked a point for what he said was a grunt during play and fire back at Novak Djokovic for his tardiness at the Rome Open some weeks back.
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