Controversy at Indian Wells 2023 as chair umpire fails to notice racquet touching net on match point during Jaume Munar's 1R clash with Yibing Wu

Controversy broke out in the final minutes of the first-round match between Jaume Munar and Yibing Wu at the 2023 Indian Wells. The chair umpire missed an error by Wu during the course of the match point, which should have legally led to the point being awarded to Munar.

The two players faced each other on Court 2 of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Wednesday. Munar claimed the opening set in a hard fought tie-break, but Wu put up a determined comeback to win the second set without dropping a single game.

The deciding set went into a tie-break and this time around, the Chinese sensation got a couple of mini-breaks to claim a healthy 6-3 lead. Wu then made a sensational dive to return a shot from Munar to claim the match point.

However, the Spaniard immediately pointed out that upon diving, Wu's racquet touched the net before the ball bounced twice. The umpire did not agree with Munar's argument though, claiming that the point was Wu's since she didn't see the error in real-time.

That said, even if Munar had been awarded that point, Wu would still have had a couple more match points to take advantage of.

Munar will be disappointed with his early exit at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament, especially since he had a decent outing at the Chile Open.

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"Nobody wants to be facing these situations" - Yibing Wu on the match point controversy involving Jaume Munar

Yibing Wu at the 2022 US Open - Day 5

Yibing Wu later admitted that being involved in a controversy, that too on match point, is an uncomfortable situation to be in.

During an on-court interview following the match, Wu claimed that his racquet touched the net only after the ball went out of play, but acknowledged that the situation was "tricky."

"He saw before the ball touched the court, my racquet already touched the net. But, the fact is the ball already touched the ground and after that the racquet touched the net," said Wu. "I mean, it's tricky because it's a match point. Nobody wants to be facing these situations, of course!"

Wu also reflected on the unpredictability of tennis and added that it is the reason why people fall in love with the sport.

"Also, there are few arguing before, about this troubled bounce. I mean, tennis is like this. You never know what's gonna happen and that's why we all love this sport," he said.

Yibing Wu will face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters on Saturday.