LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) – Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime hit out at an injury rule on Sunday after the third seed beat Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
The 25-year-old labelled it “a disgrace” after his opponent took a time-out after injuring his ankle in the fourth set when Auger-Aliassime was serving and had two match points.
On the resumption, the Canadian lost his serve and was dragged into a deciding set before securing a 6-7(4) 7-6(6) 6-3 6-7(2) 6-1 victory.
The players were involved in a verbal spat after shaking hands and while Auger-Aliassime did not disclose what was said, he hit out at the rules.
“The interactions between him and I, I don’t want to get into that. If he wants to come in here and talk about it, he can. But he knows my opinion,” he said.
“What I can say, though, is that I think the rule has to change. I think that obviously as long as the rule is like that, a player will use it to their advantage.
“I think that it’s very simple: if you’re hurt bad while the game’s going on… in the middle of the game, the opponent is serving, the shot clock is on, basically when you’re hurt bad, you’re forfeiting every point until you can call the physio. If the physio helps you recover, you play your service game. If you’re hurt bad, then you retire.
“But to stop in the middle of an opponent’s service game and to be able to call the physio, I think that’s a disgrace of a rule. I don’t see any other sport where you can do that. I mark my words. It’s a disgrace of a rule.”
Auger-Aliassime will face seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
“I can only say good things about Novak because, I think as a kid I didn’t appreciate it as much, but now I’m a player, the load of work he’s done over the years, I mean, I’m not even near any of that. Just to think about it, it’s crazy.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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