Daria Kasatkina and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina have called for VAR to be implemented in tennis.
The calls have came after Andrey Rublev was disqualified from his semi-final with Alexander Bublik in Dubai.
As Bublik lead 6-5 in the final set, Rublev shouted in the face of an umpire allegedly swearing in Russian which was picked up by one of the officials.
This saw Rublev be disqualified from the event with Bublik reaching the final in Dubai.
However as a result of the incident players have called for a VAR review system with the video showing inconclusive proof of whether Rublev did swear in Russian.
Leading the calls for such innovation are Daria Kasatkina and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina as the duo called for VAR to be introduced on twitter, “So you can just disqualify a player, take away all his points and money, without even checking the video? What a joke, yet another confirmation that we need VAR in tennis and an electronic appeal system in all tournaments,” Kasatkina said on social media.
VAR has been implemented in football and also a similar system in rugby with mixed results.
It’s clear though that more technology would help umpires identify whether a grounds for disqualification would be necessary.
So far VAR has been trialled at the Next Gen Finals and the Nitto ATP Finals.
