"The chair umpire did an excellent job," Becker defends Musetti after the line judge incident
On Tuesday afternoon, Lorenzo Musetti advanced to the Roland-Garros semifinals with a four-set victory over Frances Tiafoe (6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2). To reach the final, the Italian will have to overcome Carlos Alcaraz in a rematch of the Monte-Carlo final and the Rome tournament semifinal earlier in the season.
However, the match was marked by an incident between Musetti and a line judge. Clearly frustrated, the world No. 7 kicked a ball, which then hit a line judge (see video below).
The footage, broadcast on television, quickly spread across social media, where users compared what happened on Court Philippe-Chatrier to Novak Djokovic's disqualification at the 2020 US Open.
At the time, the Serb, who had just been broken by Pablo Carreño Busta in the first set of their round of 16 match, hit a ball with his racket behind him but unintentionally struck a line judge in an empty stadium due to the pandemic restrictions.
Tennis legend Boris Becker weighed in on the incident and believed the umpire made the right call by not disqualifying the Italian in his match against Frances Tiafoe.
"The chair umpire did an excellent job. You can't disqualify Musetti for an incident like this. The warning was justified, but you can't compare what happened today (Tuesday) with Djokovic a few years ago.
Everyone is trying to be holier than the Pope. The internet really needs to calm down. This clearly deserves a warning, not a disqualification," Becker told *Tennis Up To Date*. On the other hand, Tim Henman disagreed with the German's opinion.
"According to the rules, if you hit the ball out of frustration and it strikes a ball kid, a line judge, or the chair umpire, you can be disqualified.
In this situation, the umpire could have clearly interpreted Musetti's action as warranting disqualification. However, if Musetti had been disqualified, he would have felt unlucky and hard done by.
When you kick the ball like that, you'd better be a good footballer and send it in the right direction—otherwise, you risk disqualification," the Brit commented.
