After the controversial episode – J.Shang’s sarcastic message: “It’s good to play against such an honest opponent”

At the ATP 1000 Mutua Madrid Open men’s tennis tournament in Madrid, Spain, on Saturday Juncheng Shang (ATP-111) after 1 hour 44 minutes of fighting 5:7, 3:6 lost to the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ATP-28).

Much discussion in this match was caused by an important episode in the twelfth game. Mr. Shang served the ball at that time and was one point away from overtime. Just when it looked like he would win that point and snatch extra time, the Spaniard returned the ball to the other side of the court, and then the Chinese made a mistake.

Mr. Shang immediately started throwing up his hands after that episode and argued that before that the ball had touched the ground twice and the Spaniard did not have time to hit it according to the rules. However, none of the judges noticed this, although according to the replay it seemed that the Chinese was indeed telling the truth. A. Davidovičius Fokina did not take any action either, who simply “took” that controversial point, later won the opponent’s series of serves and changed the course of the match.

“The most important episode of the day. It’s always fun to play against such an honest opponent”, J. Shang said sarcastically.

In this match, Mr. Shang also surprised his opponent with serves “from below”.

The prize pool of the ATP 1000 series men’s tennis tournament in Madrid is just over 7.877 million. euros.