Tennis player who erased mark on court apologizes to opponent

  On Saturday wheelchair tennis greats Esther Vergeer and Rick Draney received tennis’s ultimate honor at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I.

Surrounded by their family, friends, fellow Hall of Famers and their biggest fans, Vergeer and Draney gave thanks to those who helped make their careers Hall of Fame worthy. Relive the moments and explore the videos, photos, and more from their enshrinement weekend, including a special congratulations video from their peers.

While wondering who else caught the Dunlop product placement in Barbie, we move onward ...

I don’t understand why Ruud and Rublev are playing two consecutive weeks on clay right after Wimbledon and before the North American hardcourt swing.

James, PDX

• Because … tennis. (Because appearance fees.) Here’s a snapshot of tennis. We have this spellbinding weekend, the sport at its most elevated. We have a surprise Wimbledon women’s champion, suggesting that, at any given event, a player can get hot, slalom through a draw and transform their career (life?) … and the men provided No. 1 vs. No. 2, a 20-year-old vs. a 36-year-old, flush with all sorts of plotlines and then a match that exceeded hype and crushed ratings worldwide.

And tennis built on this surge in excitement … how? There were clay court events in Europe. And a grass event in Newport. And the new Wimbledon champion headed to Nice for a mix-gendered team event. And there was a showdown on a court lacking doubles alleys in L.A. Stan Wawrinka sprayed ball kids with champagne.

I saw the outrage over Amarissa Tóth erasing a clay court mark for a contested point and immediately thought of Jimmy Connors doing the same at the 1977 U.S. Open. I think Connors even ran all the way over to his opponent’s side to do it. Is there anything refs can do to address actions like this? It looks like both Connors and Tóth got away with it.

Paul Haskins, Wilmington, N.C.

• First let’s acknowledge that after thundering condemnation—not least from other WTA players, whom, ideally, she will be facing for the next decade—Tóth has issued this apology. Let’s accept it.

This incident in some ways is minor. Barely a day after this spellbinding, sidewinding Wimbledon final, who would have guessed an incident at a 250 event in Hungary would make such news? But there were a lot of nuances here, encapsulating issues of mental health, incompetence and fair play. Social media did its thing. Inevitably this ended up in the insatiable maw of the culture wars. The tournament did itself no favors with its statement. (New rule: If you’re attempting to defuse conflict, a statement with the search terms “Chinese video manipulation” ain’t it.) The WTA offered a statement in response to the statement—“The WTA has zero tolerance for racism in any form or context”—adding another rotation to the news cycle.

Two top-line thoughts: (1) The level of player outrage was extraordinary. Ons Jabeur, Daria Kasatkina, Victoria Azarenka, Martina Navratilova, Daria Saville … when players weigh in so uniformly and passionately it tells you something. A lot of people (myself included) took a cue from them. If they are this upset by the breach in sportsmanship and the treatment of a colleague, we ought to be as well.

(2) Was this cheating? I say yes. A number of you disagreed. (Full disclosure: I’m in a group chat with some former and current players, and there was no consensus.) While an opponent is not obligated to concede or correct chair decisions and line calls they believe to have incorrectly benefited them, that is, of course, the noble path. Especially on clay, where there is forensic evidence. If you want to let a bad call stand, or leave it to your opponent to challenge, that’s acceptable. Sometimes players will encourage their opponent to challenge. At Wimbledon, we saw Jessica Pegula challenge one of her own serves she deemed to be out, though it was called in. Pegula was correct.

Last week Zhang hit a shot that was clearly on the line, and it was called out. Tóth did not choose to intervene. Her prerogative. Play resumed. Several points later, Zhang, still upset about the call, complained. As she pleaded her case, Tóth approached the line. Zhang pleaded with her not to erase the mark. Tóth did so, anyway. This is terribly unsporting. To overdramatize, it is tampering with evidence. To me, it is a form of cheating. Would showing the chair umpire the mark have won Zhang the point retroactively? No. It would, though, establish a dynamic. The umpire would see the error. The next time there was a close call, he would likely be more prone to take an objection seriously.

If you have lost more than 10 matches in a row in singles, lost your grandparents and competed more than two seasons unstoppably without going back to home country for resting and recharging, it's very hard for you to be in a good place mentally.

With all that said, in professional tennis, a few wins can change lots of things. If compared with the time of Roland Garros, when Zhang Shuai cried when talking to media, she seemed in a much better state during Wimbledon. She did talk about mental fatigue and has plan going back to China and take a break after losing in the singles, however, she was much happier and looked more motivated after she got a few wins and into the women's doubles semi with Dolehide.