Mannarino beats Fognini in match that ends in controversy at UTS Guadalajara

The match between Adrian Mannarino – aka “Manna” – and Fabio Fognini on Day 2 of UTS Guadalajara at the Centro Panamericano de Tenis ended in utterly bizarre fashion on Saturday afternoon.

With Mannarino leading two quarters to zero and the third tied at 13-13, the clock froze at 17 seconds. Distracted while trying to figure out how to fix the issue, the chair umpire failed to notice that Fognini had already served — underarm, in fact — what proved to be the final point. Mannarino won it, but the umpire did not notice. Fognini then served another point and hit an ace off the net cord, so “Fogna” was temporarily awarded the quarter.

Mannarino protested, however, and tournament officials consulted the VAR. The point that Mannarino won was eventually deemed to have counted, thus ending the contest 23-10, 21-10, 14-13 in the Frenchman’s favor.

“The altitude is not really bothering me actually; what was bothering me today was the wind,” Mannarino explained. “You have to adapt to the conditions, and it’s not easy against a tricky player like Fabio.

“I don’t know exactly (what happened at the end). It was really confusing what happened at the end. Somehow we played the point, but the umpire did not realize that we played the point because he was focusing on the screen, which was not working. So it was kind of confusing.”

Both players are still alive to qualify for the semi-finals out of Group A.

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