somebody in my inbox asked me to explain the jack/felix/shapo lore so here it is. sorry i cant reply to your question directly because i deleted it by accident lmao:
1. jack played against felix at the 2024 cincinnati open, it was a round of 16 match
2. the scoreline was 5-7, 6-4, 5-4 -> 40:30 so jack had a match point. he hit a shot that was kinda a double bounce (it hit the frame of his racket then the ground) before going over the net to felixs side of the court.
3. the umpire (greg allensworth) didnt say it was a double bounce and called it a fair shot, so jack won the match by a very controversial point which is not ideal. felix immediately noticed that something was wrong and went over to argue with the umpire (but in calm and mature way, hes always classy) that it was a double bounce "he shanked it on the floor" and said that his decision is unfair "thats horrendous what you just did, did you not see the ball bounce on the floor?"
4. the umpire said that he didnt see the double bounce happen, also there was no video review available so there was no way to check
5. jack said that he can replay the point "ill replay it, but i dont know" and stated that he didnt know the shot double bounced "i might look like an idiot now, because people will say im not being fair, but i was looking at him"
6. i think its quite clear that felix wasnt really mad at jack but at the umpire: "i know its not his place to make that call, its the win for him, but its your place to make that call"
he was just frustrated with the whole situation, which is very understandable. a replay of the point might have changed the whole outcome of the match since they had one set each + it was 40:30 so it couldve ended up in a deuce and felix could win the deuce then the score would be 5-5 and the match wouldve continued for a while. yeah i hope you get what i mean
7. they didnt end up replaying the point and the match ended, they hugged at the net and felix told jack "its not your call to make"
here is a video from youtube:
there are quite a lot of articles written about the situation, here is what jack said:
"I was thinking about it for four days non-stop, I was really upset about it. I think it's respect, honesty, fair play. I've done it on tour before, where I've maybe given a second serve because there's been a loud noise or something. I always play by those things. I genuinely didn't know, and I found the criticism hard, because that was my honest truth."
he also praised felix for dealing with the situation in a classy way:
felix adressed the incident on his instagram: "Unfortunate ending of my tournament here in Cincinnati but I hope we find a way to deal with these situations in a more objective way going forward. That being said, I’m still encouraged by the level I played this week leading into the last Grand Slam of the year. Time to move on and focus on my preparation for the US Open. See you in NY."
denis is good friends with felix so here is his reaction to the whole thing:
2024 davis cup: jack lost to felix 7-6 7-5 and smashed his racket in frustration after losing the first set. i remember somebody saying that shapo refused to shake his hand later on or something like that but i literally cant find anything about it now 😭
i think thats everything. anon i hope you understand the lore now 🙏 + if im wrong with something pls point it out!! im writing this post for the third time because tumblr kept deleting my drafts bruh sorry if its messy
