A thrilling three-set thriller between Brandon Nakashima and Taylor Fritz sets off an epic drama in Cincinnati. More than the match’s outcome, though, a contentious moment in the second set has sparked a fresh debate in the tennis community. In a rally, the chair umpire was observed stopping the point.
A contentious moment occurred during a rally in the second set when Nakashima shot a forehand long with Fritz behind. He briefly paused in anticipation of the electronic system calling out the ball, but it never happened, and the players carried on with their rally.
Due to a technical issue with the automated line call system, chair umpire Greg Allensworth chose to suspend the point after a few shots and declared it would be replayed.
This angered Fritz, who argued that the ball was out and that, even though the umpire agreed, he would have taken a stand if the player had attempted to stop the point immediately.
Fritz said to the umpire: “How is this a lot? Look how far the ball is out.”
The umpire replied: “I understand that. However, they didn’t stop it in time. We played six or seven more times.”
Fritz said: “I mean I stopped.”
Again, the umpire responded: “Well, if you would have stopped the point we would have looked at it.”
Fritz then said: “Okay, no, wait, no, no, no. Don’t tell me I need to stop the point when we have electronic line calling. I mean, yeah, if we didn’t have electronic line calling I would have stopped the point. The ball is too far out. Why don’t you stop it? You are in the chair, you see the ball was a foot out. That’s the craziest thing I have ever seen.”
Drama at #CincyTennis 👀
The umpire stops the point mid-rally between Fritz & Nakashima… pic.twitter.com/00SRdw5NZk
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 14, 2024
Taylor Fritz in 2024
WLWWLWLLWW At the moment ranked no.12, the American played his last match on the 13th of August when he surrendered to world no.49 Brandon Nakashima 6-4 4-6 7-6(4) in the 1st round in Cincinnati (draw).
Presently, during this year the American has managed to achieve a compiled 38-16 win-loss record. Taylor conquered 2 titles in 2024 in Delray Beach and Eastbourne. Fritz reached the final in Munich.
Taylor Fritz will compete against the world no.8 Casper Ruud in the Round Robin. Their record is 2-0 for Ruud.
Taylor has won 2 titles in 2024 in Delray Beach and Eastbourne. Fritz was the finalist in Munich (BMW Open).
Fritz won 9 titles in his career: 6 on hard courts and 3 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
Nakashima in Cincinnati, ranking, and results in 2024
LLLWLLLWLW Ranked no.49, Nakashima owns a composed 50-23 win-loss record in 2024. The American is playing in Cincinnati where he overcame the world no.12 Taylor Fritz 6-4 4-6 7-6(4).
Brandon Nakashima will face the world no.24 Arthur Fils in the 2nd round. Their record is 1-1.
Nakashima has won 1 title in 2024 in the Tenerife 1 Challenger. Nakashima was the runner-up in the Koblenz Challenger.
He is also scheduled to play in Winston-Salem (Winston-Salem Open) on the 18th of August and U.S. Open (U.S. Open) on the 26th of August.
Taylor Fritz and Brandon Nakashima squared off 3 times. Their current head to head is 2-1 for Fritz. Before, the last time they competed against each other, Brandon Nakashima won 6-4 4-6 7-6(4) in the 1st round in Cincinnati (Western & Southern Open) on the 13th of August 2024.
In the following video you can watch the key moments of their match.
