Stubbs calls out umpire's penalty decision against Djokovic in epic match

Rennae Stubbs, the ex-coach of former world number one Serena Williams, has criticised the chair umpire's decision to penalise Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in the French Open third-round tie.

The 36-year-old secured a hard-fought win in five sets against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in the round of 64 of the competition with a score of 7-5, 6-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.

The game was an epic battle, ending at three in the morning, the latest time a game has ended in the history of the Grand Slam. During the match, Djokovic was penalised for a time violation.

The decision did not go well with Stubbs who criticised referee in a post on her official account on the social media platform X — previously known as Twitter. "Time violation at 3am after that epic a point is soooooo ridiculous. Come on umpire," she wrote.

After the match, Djokovic admitted that he was in real ‘trouble’ and heaped praise on his opponent as well. “Well, I was in real trouble,” he said. “Credit to Lorenzo for making me uncomfortable on court and playing some really amazing tennis, really high level.

At one point, I didn’t know what to do. From both ends, he was getting a lot of balls back, winners from both corners, good servers, running every ball down the court. It didn’t feel great playing him in that third set and the beginning of the fourth. I want to thank all of you and of course the crowd and everybody that stayed until 3:30am.

“I heard it was the latest finish of Roland-Garros in history, so I’m glad to be part of the history with Lorenzo. I told him at the net that he played amazing and it was a great battle. I know it’s a tough one to swallow, but he can be proud of his performance.”