Martina Navratilova has dived into the expanding WTA racism drama, with the former great slamming the chair umpire who let a line-call controversy in Budapest get out of hand in a big way.
The former great took aim at the official at the WTA event in the Hungarian capital, calling the incident in which a local player wiped out a clay mark on a disputed call.
Disgraced Hungarian WTA debutant Amarissa Toth was accused of ‘disgusting’ and ‘disrespectful’ behaviour towards China’s Zhang Shuai in the first round debacle.
The 20-year-old Hungarian ranked 548 – playing her first main draw event – did not wait for the official to arrive, instead wiping the mark away with her foot. That gesture caused her distraught opponent to protest and then quit the match in tears.
Charges of racism in right-wing Hungary quickly came to the surface, with the national federation and the local player both doubling down in their blame of Zhang.
The 34-year-old Zhang had hit a forehand which appeared to be in, though the linesman called it out. There was never a chance for a second opinion on the clay where electronic linecalling is not used.
Toth said she wiped the mark due to Zhang “causing a scene.” Zhang asked her opponent to “keep the mark. What are you doing? Why would you do that?’
Toth replied: “Because you’re making problems, that’s why.”
The crowd jeered Zhang after she quit the first-round match after winning the next game rather than playing on.
That unprecedented incident has drawn heavy fire from around the tennis sphere; there is also flak for the chair umpire, accused of being “not fit to call clay court matches.”
Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, tweeted: “Pathetic from any angle – umpire is not fit to call clay court matches and Toth is a bad sport.”
A belligerent Toth told local radio: “I don’t understand why she made such a fuss out of it, that she wanted to overrule the judge’s decision.
“I don’t understand why she didn’t accept it, but she made trouble for herself.”
The incident has prompted concern from the ITF, with an investigation all but certain.
Main photo:- Martina Navratilova and her wife Ms Julia Lemigova in the Royal Box for Wimbledon 2023 Ladies Final – by Roger Parker International Sports Fotos Ltd
