The Grand Slam Semifinalist Who Escaped Disqualification Despite Hitting a Line Judge

Wall Street Journal

2 days ago

Paris
Lorenzo Musetti was playing the greatest Grand Slam of his life on Tuesday when a single moment nearly saw him unceremoniously drummed out of Paris.
Musetti, a 23-year-old Italian ranked No. 7 in the world, was in the second set of his quarterfinal against American Frances Tiafoe, when he was momentarily overcome by frustration. Seeing a loose ball between points, he kicked it toward the back of the court—and straight into the chest of a line judge.
The line judge remained stoic, but a momentary shock rippled through the crowd. Tennis fans have seen plenty of other players, including 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic, immediately disqualified for similar reactions. This time, however, the chair umpire only issued Musetti a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
'It was a really unlucky coincidence,' Musetti said. 'I was a little bit, honestly, scared, because I really didn't want to harm anybody.'
Even Tiafoe reacted with disbelief, looking at the umpire and pointing in Musetti's direction with his racket. The message was clearly, 'Did you see what just happened?' Later, Tiafoe hinted that Musetti should have been made to forfeit the match.
'Obviously he did that and nothing happened,' he said. 'I think that's comical, but it is what it is…Obviously it's not consistent.'
Tiafoe's call for consistency was referring to at least a couple of moments at recent Grand Slams when angry or careless players have accidentally struck people on court with a ball and immediately been kicked out of the tournament.
The most stunning came when Djokovic was sent home from the 2020 U.S. Open after he struck a stray ball and hit a line judge in the throat. The line judge fell to the floor and Djokovic apologized immediately. But after a long discussion on court, officials decided that it constituted a serious enough violation of the players' Code of Conduct and ejected him.
More recently, a Roland-Garros umpire arrived at the same conclusion in 2023 when Japanese doubles player Miyu Kato knocked a ball away and inadvertently struck a ball girl in the shoulder, leaving her in tears. Kato apologized to the ball girl, but was still required to forfeit her prize money and ranking points.
'Even though you don't mean it, you're still responsible for that action,' an on-court official explained to Kato at the time. 'If you hit someone and they're injured, then you're responsible for that action.'
How the rules are applied in these situations theoretically leave plenty of discretion to the chair and tournament umpires. But in practice, the question of whether someone is actually hurt tends to be the deciding factor between a simple warning and a default. And in Musetti's case, the line judge hardly reacted at all.
'I think the umpire saw that there was no intention about that,' Musetti said, 'and that's why [they] probably just let me continue my game.'
Write to Joshua Robinson at [e-mail]