Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime suffered an unfortunate exit from Cincinnati. However, is it also instigated by his opponent Jack Draper‘s carelessness? While every tennis player wants to win their matches, the ability to empathize with the opponent and strive for a fair win makes the player great. In Aliassime’s case, Nick Kyrgios pointed out an interesting fact that hinted not only at the chair umpire’s inability but also shed light on Draper’s sportsmanship altogether.

Kyrgios took a sly dig at Draper’s comment that read, “I couldn’t have made that call myself.” Draper also mentioned that if the chair umpire had asked him to replay the point, he would have done it but the call was so close that he didn’t understand whether the ball hit the ground or it didn’t.

Referring to Draper’s comment, Kysrgios tweeted his opinion on X. Taking Aliassime’s side, he charged at Draper and said, “Mate. Horrible call, but every player knows you know exactly where you hit it hahaha ridiculous stuff.” Kyrgios implies that since Draper hit the ball, he must have had the idea whether Aliassime’s hit touched his side of the court. Kyrgios bashed the British ATP star for being a spoilsport and moving to Cincinnati’s next round, depending on the chair umpire’s faulty decision.

While Draper remained silent about the Umpire’s decision, Aliassime confronted him and tried so the point could be awarded to him. However, umpire Gregory Allensworth remained firm on his decision and said, “I did not see that.” Even the audience started shouting for a “replay” but Allensworth didn’t listen. As a result, Aliassime had no choice but to exit the tournament with sheer disappointment.

Kyrgios’ statement pointed out that Draper could be responsible for letting the umpire know what happened since he hit the volley afterward. He had the means to save Aliassime from this wrongful exit from Cincinnati and make a good example of the situation. However, things didn’t take an expected turn.

Umpire Allensworth’s decision also angered Aliassime’s colleagues, Tsitsipas and Shapovalov. They also expressed their anguish on X.

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov join Darren Cahill in proposing a new strategy for tennis tournaments

After Aliassime’s unfortunate exit from Cincinnati, Stefanos Tsitsipas tweeted supporting the Canadian. Sharing a clip of the moment, Tsitsipas wrote, “Oh my!” perfectly capturing his disappointment over the decision. Shapovalov also joined Tsitsipas’ tune and dropped a circus and clown emoji to take a sarcastic dig into the matter.

However, Jannik Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill proposed a strategy. “Video challenge system please. We have it. Use it. Nice to see the US Open implementing the VR system on 8 of its match courts.” Aliassime’s situation showed why the tournament committees should implement technology to oversee players. If Aliassime and the Briton’s match had a VR monitoring system, such an unfortunate instance could have been avoided.

On the other side, Draper’s attitude might be uncalled for but it’s hard to tell whether he could understand it in that momentum. Nevertheless, from the US Open, people hope to see error-free judgments supported by VR monitoring.