McEnroe returns to old habits

Published 09/23/2018, 2:24 PM EDT

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The Australian man, Nick Kyrgios from John McEnroe’s team steps onto the Laver Cup court arena to play his singles match against the Swiss, Roger Federer. The Australian was strung 6-3, 3-1 behind Federer. An untimely out call from the line umpire compelled the duo to play a repoint in the Laver Cup singles event. Kyrgios had pummelled an un-returnable serve on Federer’s backhand. His ace serve was called out by the linesman. The chair umpire gave out a decision to replay that point.

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The Aussie ace went up to the chair umpire, John Blom who chose to re-contest the point rather awarding it to Kyrgios. “So, you’re telling me [the umpire] called it before Roger hit it?,” Kyrgios interrogated the umpire, who replied with a “Yes!” As the situation on the court was erupting,  Team World captain John McEnroe stepped in and got involved in the issue.

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Umpire: “We’re going to replay the point, John.”

McEnroe: “Why?!”

Umpire: “Because that’s how we do it in tennis.”

McEnroe: “What chance was he gonna get return back.”

Umpire: “There was a small chance.”

McEnroe: “What chance?”

Umpire: “A small chance.”

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McEnroe: “What, 0.001?”

Umpire: “I don’t know the number, but there’s a small chance, so we replay the point.”

After a while the world saw a bitter tone of the conversation between an umpire and McEnroe. The umpire held to his decision despite the argument from McEnroe and Kyrgios’ end.

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Besides everything, Federer took just three games to break Kyrgios’ serve in the opening set, also less in the second set, as he broke him in the first service game of the second set. However, the Swiss maestro held the attention of the audience kept them in elation. “I’m very, very happy,” Federer said after the match.“I felt good from the beginning of the match and that’s unusual because we need matches to get going to get used to the reaction of the court with all the spins and slices. Today was just very clean with my game plan.”

  

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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