Ben Shelton was the beneficiary of a major umpire blunder at the Swiss Indoors in Basel after he was awarded a point that should’ve gone the way of Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
The Argentine had been drawn against Shelton in the tournament’s first round and was locked in a ding-dong battle with the sixth seed.
Shelton took the first game of the first set before Etcheverry fought back to level things at 1-1.
That pattern continued in the third, fourth and fifth games, with Shelton establishing a narrow 3-2 lead in the first set.
But the momentum fully swung in Shelton’s favour after umpire Arnaud Gabas called a point in the American’s favour, even though he’d smashed the ball out of bounds.
The confusion came from the ball, which fell just outside the baseline, bounced up and smashed Etcheverry in the leg.
Such was the ferocity of Shelton’s forehand return, it caused his opponent to lose his footing and fall to the floor.
Gabas interpreted things a different way, with the Frenchman seemingly assuming it hit Etcheverry’s first.
And with no form of video review available, the decision was forced to stand.
Etcheverry was furious and understandably so, given he would’ve drawn level in the game and could’ve gone on to level the set.
Instead, he had to wait until the eighth set to bag his third point, by which point the damage had already been done.
Shelton went on to win the set 3-6 before confirming the victory and safe progression into the second round with a 4-6 second set win.
It was a result that left a bitter taste in the mouth of Etcheverry, who took to social media to blast the ATP Tour after his first-round exit.
Posting on his Instagram story, Etcheverry said: “It is incredible that they still don’t have a review @atptour. These things can’t keep happening.”
Etcheverry wasn’t alone in his outrage though, as various fans were saying exactly the same on social media.
@tp4774 said: “If only there was a miraculous technology that everyone else but the umpire uses to see the episode again.”
@The_DON_father_ added: “So we have 72 cameras for what…”
@NadalistheGOAT_ commented: “What an absolute disgrace. Why do we not have an instant video replay. It really isn’t that hard to do.”
Shelton will face either Adrian Mannarino or Stan Wawrinka in the second round of the Swiss Indoors.