The first Fed Cup competition to be held on British territory for 26 years has been marred by allegations of poor officiating during matches.
Two members of the Greek team have criticised the tournament shortly after their losses to Great Britain on Friday at the University of Bath. World No.38 Maria Sakkari voiced her frustration after losing 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, to Johanna Konta. Speaking to reporters after her match, Sakkari said that too many mistakes were made.
“This is unacceptable. They were making a lot of mistakes,” BBC Sport quoted Sakkari as saying. “We cannot have amateurs.”
Clearly bemused by the events, the 23-year-old continued by taking aim at the ‘terrible’ line judges. Throughout the match both her and Konta disputed a series of calls that was made against them. Unlike many events on the ATP and WTA Tour, there is no Hawk-Eye system in place for players to challenge the calls.
“Yeah they are terrible. Since the first round,” Sakkari commented about the line judges.
“They’re the worst I’ve ever seen in my life. This is unacceptable.”
“Because we have many players in the top 100, we are playing with poor balls, nine and 11 change, and with line umpires that have never worked in their life. That’s what I want to say.”
Valentini Grammatikopoulou, who lost to Katie Boulter in three sets during the tie, was also critical. The world No.171 slammed the umpiring of her match by describing it as unfair. Grammatikopoulou lost her match 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
“I’m really disappointed,” she said. “It’s really unfair to play like this. Three calls were in deuce. You can watch it actually and I will show her the balls were out.”
“She [Boulter] deserved to win but let’s play fair. That’s why we play tennis, you know? Not to judge the lines. It’s really tough. It’s not about how she played, it’s about fair play.
“If the ball was out, I accept. If the ball was in, I accept. But not if it’s really clearly out. It doesn’t matter anymore but if I want to lose, I want to lose nice.”
In the wake of the claims, British captain Anne Keothavong stated that those controversial calls had no impact on the outcome of the tie.
“The line-calling today didn’t affect the outcome of the matches. There were tight line calls. Some of the bad line calls went both ways, but that’s tennis.” Said Keothavong.
“There was a lot of tension out there. But my brother’s an official so I’m sympathetic to officials these days. It’s not easy out there for them too.”
Responding to the comments, the Lawn Tennis Association has defended the officials. Rebecca James, who is the LTA Tournament Director, have said that every lines-person and umpire working at the tournament in Bath has the correct qualification to do so.
“The officials selected for this event by the Association of British Tennis Officials (ABTO) have all worked at the highest levels of the game. The chair umpires are internationally certified and selected by the ITF. The lines people are all paid LTA licenced officials, who have all worked Wimbledon semi-finals and finals between them, including many on previous Davis Cup and Fed Cup matches.”
Great Britain is currently sitting in first place in Pool A of the tournament. They are yet to lose a match after securing 3-0 victories over Greece and Slovenia. They will play Hungary in their final group match on Friday.
