"Umpiring in Monte-Carlo was like a dumpster fire" says Andy Roddick after Daniil Medvedev incident draws mixed reactions

Andy Roddick reacted to the "dumpster fire" umpiring at the Monte-Carlo Masters last week following Daniil Medvedev's complaints about the umpiring errors. The American sided with the Russian for questioning the ball marks on the clay, and he also disagreed with other warnings issued during the past week.

The first clay Masters 1000 of the year faced several criticisms throughout the week due to problems with line calls and some code violations given to players. Medvedev was one of the protagonists after shouting at the umpires in two consecutive matches over wrong decisions.

It first happened against Gael Monfils after losing a service game in which the umpire overturned two calls. The former world No. 1 then fell to Karen Khachanov in straight sets and called for the dismissal of the umpire due to his mistakes: “He's a bad referee, he should be out of the referee circle,” Medvedev said.

The 2003 US Open champion criticized the umpiring issues that occurred in Monte-Carlo and wondered why electronic line calls are not used on clay: “The umpiring in Monte Carlo was like a dumpster fire, like an absolute dumpster fire start to finish. Like why do we not have electronic line calling?” the former world No. 1 said. “If we have the ability, why would we not want to get every call right?

“Like, well, there's a mark on clay. You can misread a mark. I've had millions of practices with pro players who see marks all the time and you disagree on a mark. Wouldn't it be nice to at least have confirmation bias or something to tell you to kind of get on with it?”

Roddick continued to comment on the case of the Russian: “There’s just a difference with Medvedev. It was like, he just did two days in a row. He's just going off the umpire. Yeah, he was right both days, by the way.”

“Medvedev is kind of right most of the time. Like when he melts down, he's kind of right. And that should matter a little bit. It should matter. Like if you imagine you being at work, being right about something, and then also getting docked pay, or also being right, but also you have to suffer the consequences if you're wrong. Like you wouldn't go quietly.”

However, the umpiring issues weren't just limited to Medvedev, as others like Holger Rune and Hubert Hurkacz were also affected, as Andy Roddick commented: “Holger Rune had kind of like a tale of two. He went off on an umpire one day and was wrong about the call. And then the next day he literally did like shadow puppets.”

“Like if you were to imitate a duck quack with your hand, for those only listening on audio, like your thumb goes into your other four fingers in rapid succession, he did that to the crowd, that,” he added.

“And he got a warning. Hubie Hurkacz got a warning. He got a warning and the umpire's explanation was, Oh, I felt like that was spillover from last point. No, no, no, no. There's no build-up to a warning. It's either a warning or it's not. It was crazy,” Roddick concluded.