David Nalbandian blasts stupid umpire

Argentine David Nalbandian furiously lashed out at the "stupid" chair umpire yesterday after he was refused a key video challenge towards the end of his 4hr 41min marathon loss to John Isner.


Nalbandian during yesterday's match against Isner. Pic/AFP

Nalbandian said the official, Kader Nouni of France, was not capable of umpiring men's grand slam matches after making the contentious call late in the gripping five-setter, which ended 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 10-8.

"I mean, it's ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires. What is this? Why did the ATP do this?" Nalbandian fumed. "I didn't understand in that situation, eight-all break point.

I mean, can you be that stupid to do that in that moment?" Holding a break point at 8-8 in the deciding set, Nalbandian, a former top-10 player and the 2002 Wimbledon runner-up, asked for a Hawk-Eye video review when the umpire overruled a fault call on Isner's serve.

But Nouni told him he was "too late" to request the challenge, according to Nalbandian, who argued with the umpire for several minutes and called the match supervisor on court.

However, Nalbandian was told Hawk-Eye was used at the umpire's discretionu00a0-- and he lost the game, and was then broken, to end the 99-minute decider in acrimonious fashion.