Cibulkova slams Wimbledon officials over call row

LONDON: Dominika Cibulkova launched a scathing attack on Wimbledon’s officials after a line call controversy marred her 6-4, 6-1 rout of Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei on Monday.

Cibulkova was furious when Hsieh successfully persuaded the umpire to replay a point that was initially called in the Slovakian’s favour and would have given her three set points in the opening set. Hsieh’s protests to the umpire prompted the match referee to come on court to intervene as the argument lasted almost seven minutes before the point was finally replayed, much to Cibulkova’s disgust. The 29-year-old challenged her anger to secure a fourth round win over Hsieh — who had shocked world number one Simona Halep in the previous round. “It was ridiculous what happened there. It never happened to me in my career,” Cibulkova fumed.

“Sometimes I’m also complaining because I think it was a wrong call. But it never happened to me that the umpire changed the decision.“It was really ridiculous for me. I think it was a really bad decision from the supervisor and from the umpire. “They changed their mind. The umpire told me she don’t remember what happened after the ball. Is it my fault you don’t remember if she hit the net or if she put it on my side?

“It doesn’t matter. The call was after when she played the ball. She made a decision. “After she was complaining, they were talking in Chinese, whatever language. “It really messed with me, then I tried to just calm down, to play my game.” Asked if she had any sympathy for Hsieh, as replays suggested the Taiwan player deserved to have the point replayed, Cibulkova said: “No. This happened to me so many times.

“I had exact the same point, and the point was given to the other player. “I had no sympathy because it’s just about the chair umpire. “I’m a fair player. When I feel like this is something that should not happen, I would maybe have sympathy with her.” Cibulkova is ranked 33rd in the world and controversially missed out on being seeded at Wimbledon when tournament officially moved up seven-time champion Serena Williams into the seedings despite the American being ranked outside the top 150 following her maternity leave.