ROLAND GARROS — Dan Evans fumed at what he saw as an unnecessary and momentum-shifting delay by the umpire during his first-round French Open defeat to Holger Rune.
The British No 3 went down 6-4 6-4 6-4 to Rune, the No 13 seed, but did lead 4-2 in the third set and felt he was mounting a comeback when umpire Jaume Campistol came down to rule on a mark in the clay.
The decision went against Denmark’s Rune, who argued that Campistol had looked at the wrong mark and followed him back to the chair to make his point.
Meanwhile, Evans stood at the other end waiting to serve and when he finally was allowed to resume, he was broken and did not win another game in the match.
“I’m fed up with the umpires, flat full stop,” Evans said afterwards.
“I’m waiting to serve. It’s freezing on the court. The match was flowing great and then just stopped in the middle.
“That’s not the reason I lost and that’s just part of the issue, part of the problem, but he’ll be back in work again tomorrow.
“On the whole the umpiring is good. The clay is a difficult surface. But definitely having a conversation on somebody else’s serve, you don’t see it in any other sport.
“In rugby they get 10 metres or whatever, squash you’re not allowed, it’s no talking. We just sit there and have a conversation. We’ve seen many cases of it.”
It is not the first time this summer that Evans has found himself sitting down after a match with a bone to pick with the umpire.
In Rome earlier this month, umpire Mohamed Lahyani appeared to inspect the wrong mark during Evans’s clash with Fabio Fognini, ruling in the Italian’s favour.
Evans was furious over a call Lahyani appeared to have got wrong and was further infuriated by the manner in which he was spoken to, telling the Swedish umpire to “talk to me in a professional manner” and not to “scream at me”.
Yet the Solihull native says he is yet to receive at apology from the tour.
“I actually got fined in Rome for my language. I made a point of looking at my prize money receipt and I was fined,” Evans said.
“That’s the tour for you, isn’t it? The powers that be don’t have to answer the questions, it’s the players. It’s disappointing, really.”
He added: “You have to be a strong character to come down [from the chair and make a decision] but remember, they do pretty much exactly the same as we do when we all wake up in the morning.
“They are humans and I think some of them forget that.”
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