‘You Need To Take It Off’: Chair Umpire Disallows the Use of Smart Watch at Australian Open 2022 First Round

American tennis star Sloane Stephens went up against last year’s US Open champion Emma Raducanu in the first-round match at the Australian Open 2022. This was the first time the two US Open champs faced off, and it turned out to be a memorable encounter.

However, during the coin toss, there was an interesting conversation between the chair umpire and Stephens. The umpire asked the American star player to remove her watch as she was wearing a smartwatch. 

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Bizarre request made to Sloane Stephens during encounter against Emma Raducanu

Ironically, the players on the WTA Tour are allowed to wear a smartwatch, but in the Grand Slam tournaments, the rules are opposite. It didn’t end there as Sloane argued with the umpire and mentioned that she has seen 15 players on the Tour wearing a watch.  

The conversation went, Umpire: “You need to take it off, it’s allowed only on WTA Tour.” Stephens: “I have seen 15 people wearing that.” Umpire: “It’s confusion between tour and Slams.” Stephens: “We can wear them. We got all these papers and I can, I promise you, swear.”

Reflecting on the match, Raducanu went all guns blazing as she sealed the opening set 6-0. She revealed glimpses of her form at the US Open 2021. 

After that, Stephens came back into the match and clinched the second set 6-2 in her favor. The intensity of the match was high as expected and the winner had to be decided by playing the third and final set. 

Raducanu raced to a 4-0 lead in the third set and ended up winning the set 6-1. Raducanu will be up against Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic in the second round. Even though she’s already achieved tremendous success, this is only Raducanu’s third-ever Grand Slam tournament and first time Down Under. She’ll be hoping to go as deep as possible in the Slam and gain some valuable experience. 

We wish all players competing at the Australian Open 2022 the best of luck and the rest of the season.

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