The opening day of the World Tennis League featured plenty of intriguing matchups and matches, and one of those saw World No. 1 Iga Swiatek face a familiar foe in Elena Rybakina.
This mixed-gender exhibition tournament, currently held in Abu Dhabi, has a very distinct scoring format. Ties are meant to have five matches, three in doubles and two in singles. And the interesting part is that each match is a one-set shootout.
A quite peculiar situation developed during the super tiebreak between Swiatek and Rybakina. The Pole had won their women’s singles match 6-4 to level the score at 24-24 between the Hawks and the Falcons. The same two players would step up to play the 10-point tiebreak to determine the winner of the tie.
Just like usual serving rules in tiebreaks on the pro tour, Rybakina kicked off the super tiebreak on serve, and thereafter, each player was entitled to two successive serve points. With Rybakina leading 3-2 in the super tiebreak, they alternated, and the Pole was due two serves.
After Swiatek leveled at 3-3, the two players went to a changeover to sip some water and exchanged sides. Now, here’s where the blatant error happened. Swiatek was supposed to serve at the next point after the changeover.
Instead, it was Rybakina who served without anyone realizing the mistake. But tennis fans on social media pointed out the error. Rybakina eventually prevailed, winning the super tiebreak 10-8 and giving her team the win in the tie.
The serve after the changeover ended up being decisive in the outcome. Having served the second-most aces on the women’s tour last season, Rybakina benefitted from a glaring umpire error to establish a 5-3 lead.
It was even surprising that Swiatek didn’t make too much fuss about it because she also turned a blind eye without even knowing.
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