A wrong line call almost cost Barbora Krejcikova a place in a Grand Slam final, but the Czech luckily managed to convert her fifth match point and advance to the 2021 French Open title match where she’ll face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.
The unseeded Krejcikova saved one match point, almost fell victim to chair umpire’s wrong decision and battled for three hours and 18 minutes to overcome Maria Sakkari of Greece 7-5 4-6 9-7.
The 17th-seeded Sakkari had a match point at 5-3 in the decider, but Krejcikova won three games in a row and put her opponent in a disadvantageous position of constantly being a few points away from defeat. Sakkari handled the pressure very well and continued to catch up with Krejcikova.
After saving three match points to level to 7-7, Sakkari double-faulted and handed Krejcikova the fourth opportunity to take the match. That’s when Sakkari sent a ball long, which the chair umpire ruled as in, and the Greek got herself out of yet another difficult situation. Luckily, Krejcikova didn’t know that the hawk-eye saw that the ball was out and it should’ve been her victory. Justice was served soon afterwards, as the Czech converted her fifth match point. Imagine what would’ve happened had Sakkari won the match and Krejcikova learned that she should’ve won on her fourth match point!
Competing at a Grand Slam for the 52nd time, seed No.31 Pavlyuchenkova beat Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 7-5 6-3 and became the first woman to participate in more than 50 majors before reaching her first final.
After an early 2-0 deficit, Pavlyuchenkova established a 5-3 lead in the first set. Just as it seemed like Zidansek gained momentum, Pavlyuchenkova won four games in a row from 5-5 in the opener. Even though Zidansek did break back twice in the second set, Pavlyuchenkova kept herself ahead and clinched her place in Saturday’s final.
Hawk-Eye on clay NOW!!!
That being said (see previous comment) congratulations to Barbora…very well done and fully deserved!!!
She is no longer just a doubles specialist. Agreed..French Open needs Hawk-Eye for sure and a deciding set tie-break, too!
It was disturbing to think she could have lost the match because of a wrong call. I think they need hawk-eye. And it looks really stupid when the umpire comes down to inspect a mark that (a) may not even be the right mark and (b) you could never tell whether it touched the line with the same accuracy as hawk-eye anyway.
I agree with you 100% Jim and CLT!!
This situation showed just how important hawk-eye is. A lot is at stake here. A wrong line call can literally rob someone off a career-best result, plus a lot of money. Luckily, Barbora won another match point.