Karlovic Questions Wimbledon Integrity After Loss To Murray

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Ivo Karlovic accused officials of cheating him of a victory against home hope Andy Murray yesterday.

Croat giant Karlovic was called for 11 foot faults in his 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) loss and accused All England Club line judges of deliberately attempting to ease the British player's path through the tournament.

“I feel cheated. On a Grand Slam, Centre Court,” said 33-year-old Karlovic.

“It was outrageous. It's Wimbledon and they do this. This is cowpat.

“In my whole life, ever since I was eight years old, I didn't do this many foot faults. It was like 11.

“The whole credibility of this tournament went down for me. I'm angry about it, a little bit peed, (Karlovic used another word here but 606v2 filters must have thought it too strong) because I don't expect it here. Even though it is against an English guy who they always want to win.”


http://www.iol.co.za/sport/tennis/wimbledon-hit-by-sexism-cheating-storm-1.1330376#.T-0zV5G8hWo


This story has wide coverage including the BBC website


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/18636457

banbrotam wrote:

hawkeye wrote:imagine that Murray was falsely double faulted 11 times in one of his matches with Richard Gasquet at the French Open. After the match Murray gave an interview like Karlovic's. Would you call it a non story?

Yes. More to the point I'd tell Murray to grow up and stop being a sore loser - if you can only get one break point against the serve then you don't deserve to win

Murray would never moan about such things. In the US Open against Fed in 08 - Murray had a chance to appeal on break point against Fed in the second set (which I think would have had him serving for the match). He didn't and the ball was out

Did he berate the line judge for been on Fed's side, given that this was an obvious wrong decision not given?

Keep up the excellent articles

Actually Murray had played on in that rally and thereby had no option to appeal. Or even view hawkeye to see it was out.

It wasn't obvious, so much so that he'd... er.......played on.

Didn't some home country line judge in a DC match admit to foot faulting an opposing player to give an advantage? So it's not precedented...unlikely, but not unprecedented. Karlovic does have one of the best service actions on tour...it's the raisin d'être to his game, 11 FFs does seem a tad weird if nothing else.

Shame they can't analyse a video of it t o clear this up.

Like I said i think we got a deficiently trained or closet Murray fan on that line Lydian. 11 foot faults is a really weird number. Especially for Karlovic I mean the guy can hit the ball completely flat hell from a yard or two behind the baseline because he is so tall. What advantage does he get by foot faulting?

Like JHM stated, Karlovic can ask for it to be investigated. Let's see what the outcome is. All the speculation is getting a bit pathetic.

Agree...and after 3 or 4, which in itself is weird for him, he'd be standing further back surely? To get 11 is plain weird...never heard of any player getting that number before. It's almost like serving 30 double faults.

But he's taking a risk here without proof as he could be held up for unsportsmanlike conduct if the case goes against him after lodging an official complaint...which I'm not sure if he's done or not.

'Pathetic' is your opinion LK, but speculation is what makes this, or any, forum tick..it's fine to say its weird to see 11FFs, no-one here is accusing SW19 of cheating outright.

Granted strange, but if they are reviewed and the conclusion is that the calls were right, then further questions will be asked of line judges and that with the whole time violation with the umpires will further damage the creditability of officials and their capacity to actually officiate a match.

Karlovic's formal complaint should just omit any bias accusations and just ask for evidence that something so strange (him foot faulting 11 times) actually happened. Presumably that would keep him out of (further) trouble...

LK, it is an aberration I don't think wimbeldon was involved in a conspiracy or anything like that. You had a dodgey line judge. Me if I am the umpire of that match after the second foot fault I am watching that call with the linesmen. And if he misses one I yank him and put someone else on the line. I mean we don't know it is possible that gamblers could get to a judge or the man himself has money on it, or he is just subconsciously pulling for murray. My own gut opinion is the more likely scenario is that they had an inexeperienced and poorly trained line judge out there who couldn't differentiate a foot fault from a good serve. It isn't that easy because every player's weight is coming forward the split second he strikes the ball the can legally dive 10 feet into the court. The key is looking at the foot and listening for contact that split second is not always easily judged. I doubt it is a conspiracy just a dodgey official. Now here is where the tournament does deserve some blame get the guy out of there after his 4th or 5th FF. And check his work, the umpire should be supervising him by watching Karlovic's feet after the first or second foot fault, I doubt that occurred.

Well socal I hope it was a dodgy line judge because I would hate to see more officials under the microscope if they are missing legitimate foot faults.

Was it all the same line judge? It would have to be at the same end every time and all the line judges usually get replaced after, what, an hour?

That is were for me the blame is on the chair umpire. He has to after that second foot fault supervise that call by watching Karlo's feet everytime. If he sees a single blown call he gets the guy out of there and gives someone else a shot at making that call. It sounds strange to me that after years and years all of sudden Karlo gets 11 FFs called on him. Particularly Karlovic I mean usually you want to get further into the court so when you hit the ball you can hit it flat and down with more pace and clear the net. Karlovic can easily hit the serve completely flat from a foot or two behind the baseline because of his height. I think the chair umpire blew it most likely. I mean who knows maybe he did FF 11 times but i doubt it. After the second FF the chair umpire had to wake up and do his job of supervising the linespeople.

Good question Julius, I don't know what the procedure is for that it would be very interesting to know how many of those calls were made by one guy or two guys. I don't know.

Karlovic is actually saying it was 10 foot faults now.

Do we have any official confirmation on how many it was?

There was only one in a tie-break also, and he whined about them always coming at important points in tie-breaks.

Karlovic does intend to make an official complaint. There is separate article about it that seems to have been missed.

https://www.606v2.com/t31853-karlovic-to-lodge-official-complaint-about-biased-officials

Missed? Or Ignored?

Hmmm Karlovic's theory blown out of the water tonight then? If Wimbledon had any bias to Murray they would have shoved him on the Centre Court after the Djokovic match was finished.

I think this is just Karlovic trying to get a bit of reflected publicity - as has been pointed out before the officials aren't Wimbledon staff exclusively - they officiate across the tour, so it does seem a little far fetched they would suddenly decide to bend the rules for Murray at Wimbledon when there has been no suggestion of such behaviour from the same staff anywhere else on the tour.

I know I can't see my toes too well from 6'10 away...

Hmmm not a foot fault in sight in Andy's match yesterday and he was far more precariously positioned and in need of exernal help than V Karlovic. Damn the integrity of Wimbledon.

Oh deary me and no foot faults against Tsonga today either. Kind of blows this putrid theory out of the water don't you think?

I'd still bet that there's no way Karlovic genuinely foot-faulted 11 times. Feel a bit sorry for him, but he shouldn't have pointed to bias though ...