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Several tennis fans were left disappointed after the US Open’s much-advertised new VAR review system malfunctioned on its global debut in Andy Murray and Corentin Moutet’s opening-round match.
Murray locked horns with Moutet in the first round of the 2023 US Open on Tuesday. The encounter was a tense one, with Moutet dishing out underarm serves, smashing his racket, complaining about the tournament not providing him with pickle juice, and suffering a wrist injury after a heavy fall. Despite all the drama, Murray ended up winning in straight sets (6-2, 7-5, 6-3) after two hours and 58 minutes of play.
A noteworthy highlight of the match was Corentin Moutet challenging a ‘not up’ call by chair umpire Louise Engzell during a critical moment as Murray served for the match. He thus inaugurated the US Open’s newly introduced VAR technology, which is making its global tennis debut.
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However, to the dismay of the Frenchman as well as the tennis world, the technology malfunctioned during the deuce point.
While everyone was able to spot the double bounce during a video replay, the chair umpire was unable to access the VAR pictures on her tablet. After a prolonged struggle with obtaining the data, the chair umpire apologized for the farce and stated that the initial double bounce call would stand due to the system error, thus granting Murray a match point.
Luckily for the players, the chair umpire’s initial call was right, and it did not affect the outcome of the match.
Tennis fans, however, were displeased with the VAR technology failing on its debut and shared their reactions to it.
"Just proving that VAR is crap wherever it's deployed. In the end Moutet (who asked for the challenge) was begging the umpire to just make a decision, whichever way it went," one fan said.
"Jesus Christ this var debut for tennis at the US open has been embarrassing," another fan remarked.
Here are a few more reactions from the tennis fans:
"It would be good if they could get that fixed" – Andy Murray on the VAR failure in his US Open match against Corentin Moutet
In his press conference after the win over Corentin Moutet, Andy Murray touched upon the failed review in the final moments of the match.
The Brit noted that despite Moutet challenging the double bounce, people were able to clearly see on a regular video replay that the ball had bounced twice before the Frenchman chased it.
“Yeah, so obviously I don't know exactly how it's supposed to work and who's supposed to make the decision on it because it was quite clear from the second video that the ball had bounced twice. We watched it about 10 times,” he recalled.
While the error did not affect the score, the former World No. 1 stated that the system needs to be fixed.
“It clearly is not the umpire that's making that decision. I don't know how the technology works. But, yeah, it obviously didn't go to plan in a pretty important moment of the match. So, yeah, it would be good if they could get that fixed,” Andy Murray remarked.
Andy Murray, who is now through to the second round of the US Open, is defending his third-round exit from last year.
To successfully defend his 2022 appearance, the Brit will next face 2019 US Open semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov in the second round.
