- Emma Navarro was furious on Wednesday during her match against Iga Swiatek
- The Polish tennis star booked his place in the semi-finals with a straight-set victory.
- The world number 2 will face Madison Keys in the next round of the tournament
Another crushing victory for Iga Swiatek was overshadowed by a dispute over the Australian Open's new video review technology.
The second-seeded Polish thrashed Emma Navarro 6-1, 6-2 to set up a semifinal against Madison Keys. Navarro briefly threatened to make a match when he pushed to break serve at 2-2 in the second set and that's when the controversy occurred.
With Swiatek serving in his favor, Navarro made an excellent drop shot. Swiatek chased him down and collected him, winning the point. As soon as the point and play were over, Navarro immediately turned to referee Eva Asderaki and asked her to challenge the decision, insisting that the ball had bounced twice before Swiatek recovered it.
Video challenges have been introduced in this Australian Open, through which players can challenge decisions made by the referee, such as double bounces.
But the rules state that players must stop the point to make a challenge, rather than wait until the rally is over, so Navarro couldn't intervene. As Navarro and Swiatek sat in their chairs for the change, the ridiculous spectacle of the point continued, repeating itself in slow motion over and over again on the big screen and everyone clearly saw that the ball bounced twice.
The crowd murmured and Navarro said, 'See that?' to referee Asderaki, who could not correct his mistake.
“I think I should be allowed to review it after the point, even if you keep playing,” said Navarro, the eighth seed.
'It happened very quickly. You shoot the shot and she hits it back and you say, Oh, I guess I'm playing.
'In the back of your head you think, “Maybe I can still win the point even though it hasn't been called.”
“It's going to be a disappointment if I save the point and it turns out it wasn't a double rebound.” It's hard.
“I think we should be able to see him later and make that call.”
The American presents a reasonable argument. There appears to be no good reason why a player should not be allowed to contest once the point has been concluded.
Of course, Swiatek could have awarded the point to Navarro. It would have been an exceptional act of sportsmanship, but Casper Ruud did just that for Carlos Alcaraz in the 2022 US Open final.
When asked if she had considered giving the point to her opponent, Swiatek responded: “I didn't watch the replay, I didn't look at the screens because I wanted to stay focused and I didn't want this point to stay in my head.” .
'I wasn't sure if it was a double bounce or if I hit it with my frame. It was hard to tell because I was running at full speed. Yo
'I thought it was the referee's job to decide. “I was also waiting for the VAR, but I didn't see it, so I just proceeded.”
Ironically, just as Swiatek was discussing the matter in his press conference, there was an example of the system working perfectly in the match that followed them at Rod Laver Arena.
Ben Shelton chased down a Lorenzo Sonego drop shot and the Italian then stopped the point to ask for a video review. On replay it looked like a close call but the referee, working with the video review official, awarded the point to Sonego.