BBC commentator John McEnroe gave an instant verdict on a bizarre moment during the Wimbledon quarter-final between Jan-Lennard Struff and Jannik Sinner. Top seed Sinner had break point on the Struff serve early in the second set when a spare ball fell out of the German’s pocket mid-rally. The umpire called a let, allowing Struff another chance to keep himself in the game. The umpire has discretion to award a point to a player’s opponent if they think the offence was deliberate but Struff got a reprieve on this occasion and there was no suggestion of ill-intent.
“The ball fell out of his pocket,” McEnroe said. “First [time it happens] they play a let then second time he loses the point.” A replay was subsequently shown, with the American continuing: “Let’s see if he did it on purpose… no”. He then joked: “It’s a long rally! I need a break here. Whoops. I’m probably not going to win this point!'” Fellow commentator Andrew Castle then said: “That is a tremendous disadvantage for Sinner. He loses the point because of hindrance if that happens again. Sew the pocket up or lose the point. He’s actually stuffing the ball further down.”
McEnroe followed his assessment by suggesting a VAR-style review for moments like this. “They should go to video replay in the future, and see if the person’s done it deliberately,” he said.
“Now, in that case, it was not deliberate,” he added. When Castle suggested there were enough monitors and surveillance equipment ont he premistes, his co-commentator made a World Cup comparison, saying: “Like France-Paraguay when the guy tried to mess them shooting up the penalty kick. That’s weak, man.”
The BBC commentary team suggested the rule in place is more commonly applied to when a player’s hat falls off mid-point. However, McEnroe said he had seen this sort of thing happen before on rare occasions.
After being given a reprieve, Struff saved the break point and proceeded to hold serve. That made it 1-0 in the second set, though Sinner broke him in the next service game before being immediately broken back.
“Why would it be a hindrance on the second time it happens and not the first?” Castle asked after the 36-year-old held serve. “That has materially affected this match at this point.”
After the reigning champion broke serve, the BBC suggested he was starting to take control. However, it wasn’t all over and Struff was able to demonstrate how tournaments in his home country have helped German players thrive on grass.
“We have as well in Germany great grass court tournaments leading into Wimbledon, as well,” he said after his fourth round match. “We have Stuttgart, Halle. On the women’s side I think Berlin, Bad Homburg. It’s amazing events. That helps us.
“I think in the past we had great success here for some German players, Boris [Becker], Steffi [Graf], [Michael] Stich, to name a few. Yeah, amazing. It’s good that Germans [are getting] good results.”