“Clock rules are good, but...”: Taylor Fritz reacts to umpire controversy involving Tiafoe and Tsitsipas in Shanghai

Taylor Fritz addressed the umpire controversy at the Shanghai Masters involving Stefanos Tsitsipas, Frances Tiafoe, and others. The 27-year-old American discussed the new shot clock rule, which has led to constant time violations for players.

This week’s controversies in Shanghai have largely focused on the umpires. Tiafoe had an outburst against the umpire after receiving a warning during the third-set tie-break against Roman Safiullin. With the score at 5-5, just two points away from determining the winner, Tiafoe lost his first serve for not adhering to the time rule. Playing with his second serve, his Russian rival secured the mini-break that ultimately gave him the victory.

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This wasn’t the only case, as Stefanos Tsitsipas also had a heated argument with the umpire after receiving a time violation warning while facing Daniil Medvedev. Down a set and serving at 30-15, 2-1 in the second set, the umpire didn’t spare Tsitsipas, who reacted strongly.

Fritz, who reached the quarter-finals after comfortably beating 12th seed Holger Rune 6-1, 6-2, addressed the umpire controversies after his match. "I've got tons of opinions," said Fritz. "I think the change they made with the clocks is good, now that it's automatic, because before, it was up to the umpire to start the clock, and umpires were inconsistent,"

Taylor Fritz at 2024 US Open.

"Now it's consistent, starting right after the point," he continued. However, Fritz believes that fatigue after long rallies should be considered: "Sometimes, you play a long point, and you finish at the net. That should be factored in because it takes extra time," he explained.

The recent US Open finalist also commented on Tsitsipas' dispute with umpire Fergus Murphy: "I always had a problem, particularly with Fergus," Fritz recalled. "He would start the clock too fast. I play quickly, and even I was getting time violations from him, so I complained a lot."

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"When I watched Frances, I think the first warning shouldn’t have been called," Fritz said. "The second time he stopped to cough, and I also don’t think that should’ve been called."

"The third one, that’s probably the only one that could be called because if he's going to toss the ball, it has to be believable that he's going to serve."

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