Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I said ... IT'S OUT!!!

Discuss:

From the wires:
Russian sixth seed Dmitry Tursunov was thrown out of the Slazenger Open in Nottingham after storming off court during a doubles match.
The 25-year-old, who was partnering Chris Haggard, walked off with the pair trailing Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi 6-4 3-1 after disagreeing with a line call.
An ATP statement said: "After reviewing the situation, the ATP Supervisor has withdrawn Dmitry Tursunov from the singles tournament at the Slazenger Open."
The Italian pair were awarded victory and it was expected Tursunov, who was due to face Swede Thomas Johansson in the second round on Wednesday, would be fined for his actions.
However, the rulebook of the Association of Tennis Professionals states that "at the discretion of the Supervisor, one or both of the players may be withdrawn from all other events, if any, in that tournament".
The ATP statement continued: "Thomas Johansson will now advance directly to the quarter-finals."

5 comments:

R.C. French said...

It must have been quite a sight to see, the walk off. Things like this could make doubles more exciting, and that's what the ATP wants right? In the wrestling you sometimes see a wrestler walk out on his tag team partner in the middle of a match, leaving the poor guy to get beat down by the opposing team. Storylines and grudge matches develop. Ratings.

Naf said...

I know. I'm scouring YouTube for it now. The conspiracy theory, eh? That actually sounds like a possibility when you think about it. I will say also that it's probably a lot easier to walk off when your team is already down a set and a break. Can't wait to hear Tursunov's take on this. Hey, haven't seen you around for a while, r.c. You come back now, hear?

Anonymous said...

Hey Naf. I'm with you on hearing what Tursunov has to say about the matter: There's just no telling with that guy. He could've been thinking, "Why did I ever agree to play doubles? I'm gonna try and get defaulted out of this match!"

I saw him at the U.S. Open playing doubles with Sebastian Grosjean against Fernando Gonzalez and Mardy Fish. It was entertaining, but the match kept getting stopped because of rain. I think all four wanted to bail out by the end of the evening.

R.C. French said...

Hey Naf, yeah I'm definitely gonna be around more often, your blog is great fun. Especially with Wimbledon coming up, go Bartoli go. And please, call me Rowan.

Naf said...

Well, if he were trying to get defaulted, Van, you can't do much better than that, right? That was easy. I didn't even know you could just get kicked out of a tournament by just leaving the court.
OK, Rowan. Welcome! We'll see about Bartoli. I'd pick a backup player just in case ...