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Journalism of Courage
In a bizarre and controversial Davis Cup tie on Sunday, Belgium’s Zizou Bergs won his singles match against after a collision with his Chilean opponent Cristian Garin.
After Garin and Bergs split the opening two sets to take the contest into a decider, the match ended in unusual and controversial circumstances. With the final set deadlocked at 5-5, Bergs broke serve and as he celebrated gaining the advantage, he bumped into Garin at the net while changing ends and bundled the Chilean to the ground.
Garin received medical attention but after being cleared fit to continue, he failed to return to the court and Chile received three consecutive time violations resulting in a game penalty, giving Berg a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win. That handed Belgium an unbeatable 3-1 lead.
The win eventually propelled Belgium into the second round to take on Austraia.
“It’s truly unintentional,” Bergs told in a video to the organisers. “I wanted to go fast to the bench, but I made a completely wrong decision to not wait for the opponent.” “It feels really bad to end this way. It’s obviously not what you want, to hurt an opponent,” Bergs added as he extended an apology to Chile captain Nicolas Massu.
“Terrible situation,” said Massu. “We’re here to play tennis, to defend our country. Garin is the player hit in the eye, who couldn’t continue and now we’re out.”
“This was a rare, unfortunate and very delicate situation and everyone involved, including the independent doctor, conducted due diligence based on rules and procedures,” International Tennis Federation (ITF) said in a statement.
“We understand the emotions attached to this unusual incident, but the final decision was made after consideration of all the facts and unique circumstances around it.”
– With Reuters inputs
