After playing Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in their Madrid Open second-round encounter, Shang Juncheng was not pleased with him.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was called out by Shang Juncheng after the Spaniard was given an incorrect point during their match and went on to win 7-5, 6-3. Shang attacked his opponent on social media, despite discussing it in the locker room.
The first set of Shang’s match against Davidovich Fokina ended in controversy. Serving at 5-6, the adolescent Chinese player had a chance to send the match into a tiebreak and should have won it because he hit a drop shot that the 27th seed couldn’t reach in time.
The ball was supposed to travel to Shang, but it bounced three times before Davidovich Fokina returned it. The World No. 111 hit the ball out and lost the point as the rally went on, but the umpire missed it. The Spaniard proceeded to break to win the match and the set. After losing, Shang was not pleased with the call and expressed his annoyance on his Instagram account a few hours later. He captioned a video of the event, saying, “Highlight of the day at @mutuamadridopen: always nice to play a player that’s so honest.”
Along with the comment, the 19-year-old posted a screenshot of the statement, “Double bounce is new one bounce.” A fresh replay is the serve winner. “Creating new rules?” Shang continued, tagging the commenter.
It is surprising that Shang chose to criticize Davidovich Fokina considering that the two had a private conversation about the matter in the locker room following the game. When questioned about the incident, the Spaniard revealed that he was unaware that the ball had bounced twice, but only after discussing it with his opponent.
The world No. 28 player clarified, “I am running at maximum speed, and I don’t realise if it bounces twice or once. As I said later with Juncheng in the locker room and with my team,
It’s true that the bounce after the first ball was unusual, but the umpire makes the decision because he is in a better position than I am. In my situation, I haven’t noticed either, what with all the adrenaline and the time of the set where we were.
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