Can you imagine being extremely upset about a call made by a referee? If you're a sports fan, of course you can. It probably happened the last time you watched your favorite team play.
As fans, there's not much we can do in these situations but vent our frustration. Even players can usually do little but yell at the referee for a while. On Monday, though, the pro Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky tried a different strategy: enlisting the full force of the internet, Twitter, and social media.
Playing against France's Richard Gasquet in the French Open, Stakhovsky was called for knocking a ball out of play. Stakhovsky, of course, disputed the ruling, and was so upset and determined to prove he was right that he took out his smartphone, marched up to the line, and took a picture.
Then he posted it on Twitter.
"I believe it was a bad call, it was a bad judgment. After all, we are playing on clay, where you should be clearly able to read the mark," he said, according to an Associated Press report (via the NY Daily News), "and unfortunately, not all of our referees are able to do so."
Stakhovsky tried to argue the call with umpire Carlos Ramos, but met with little success. Frustrated, he simply decided to go over and take a picture.
As controversial as the call was, it had little to do with the tennis match's eventual outcome, though. Stakhovsky lost to Gasquet in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3, but now that he is expecting a fine for his actions he's planning to take the photo to the tournament's supervisor in an attempt to escape giving up any cash.
"It was just spontaneous. It's never thought through," he said. "When you see it, you get frustrated, because you saw the ball is nowhere being out and the frustrations comes in."
Stakhovsky even added that he'd done the same thing during another match last month in Munich.
"Munich was a very close call which could go both ways, so I didn't really bother going to the supervisor and asking. But this one is in a Grand Slam, so first of all, the fine is actually there, possibly, (and) I don't want to get it," he said. "So I'll try to explain myself. I don't know if it's going to work."
As for Stakhovsky's opponent, Gasquet was more amused by the incident than anything else, saying it was "funny" and "not a problem." When you're the winner, though, everything goes down a little easier.
