Roger Federer’s Confidant Calls Out Wimbledon Umpire As Aryna Sabalenka’s Opponent Breaks Rule

There are many, many rules in the Wimbledon handbook, from the players having to wear predominantly white to the banning of selfie sticks and large hats; some of these are known the world over. Others are more subtle rules that only come to attention when they are broken or toyed with, as seems to be happening in this latest quarterfinalthat is currently playing out on the Centre Court between World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and her opponent Laura Siegemund.

In a mid-match tweet, American sports writer and Roger Federer’s biographer Christopher Clarey points out that Siegemund does “stretch the rules when returning” pointing out that on Sabalenka’s serve, her opponent has made her wait multiple times as she gathers herself.

Clarey went on to then share what the official Wimbledon rules are with regard to the returner’s pace, stating, “Official rules require a receiver to play “to the reasonable pace of the server”. Sabalenka’s pace is, in my view, reasonable. Chair umpires should enforce this.” The chair umpires, however, have not yet stepped in to alter this pattern.

Clarey concluded his tweet with the official Wimbledon rule itself, which states, “The server shall not serve until the receiver is ready. However, the receiver shall play to the reasonable pace of the server and shall be ready to receive within a reasonable time of the server being ready.” Clearly, Clarey seems to have a different view of what ‘reasonable’ means as compared to the officials!

This tournament has been one that has defied age odds in every direction. From young Mirra Andreeva beating Emma Navarro to make her way into her first Wimbledon quarterfinal to, well, not-so-young Novak Djokovic beating Alex De Minaur to make his way into his sixteenth, players have been defying age stereotypes through and through, proving that tennis goes beyond all that, but how exactly is the ten-year difference between Sabalenka and Siegemund playing out?

The truth of the matter is, there are a lot of other factors at hand that would seem to have an effect on the outcome of this match that have nothing to do with age. For one, Sabalenka is currently world No. 1 with 20 WTA tour-level singles titles to her name, while Siegemund’s career peaked when she was playing doubles matches and got seeded as world No. 4 for a brief period. The two trajectories can’t really be compared.

Further, Sabalenka is said to be hitting so hard right now that the Wall Street Journal wrote a rather divisive article about how she practices with the “men,” i.e., Djokovic and Sinner. However, looking at the current state of the match, it could really go either way. Apart from taking her time to return Sabalenka’s serves and angering Christopher Clarey, Siegemund has also, with no question or room for much criticism, broken Sabalenka’s serve a few times now!