In the fourth round of Wimbledon women's singles in 2018, Chinese Taipei star Hsieh Shu-wei lost to Cibulkova 20-2 (4-6, 1-6) and missed the top 8. There was a controversial penalty during the game. Two players expressed their dissatisfaction and the game was interrupted for nearly ten minutes. After the game, Hsieh Shu-wei laughed and said that tennis should follow the example of World Cup soccer tournament and introduce a video replay system.
The controversial scene occurred in the first set of the game. At that time, Cibulkova had a big score of 5-4 and led 30-0 in Xie Suwei's serve. On the next ball, Cibulkova hit and was called out of bounds. Xie Shuwei hit the ball back in bounds with the next shot. The Slovak girl decisively chose Hawkeye to challenge . The result showed that it was in bounds. The referee awarded the point to her, making her 40-0 with three points.
At this time, Xie Shuwei was dissatisfied with the penalty and approached the referee to argue. She said that she had hit the ball back and the ball should be replayed. However, the reason given by the Chinese referee Zhang Juan was that she did not remember whether the ball was returned or not. The anxious Xie Shuwei even complained directly to Zhang Juan in her native language. When the appeal was fruitless, Xie Shuwei called the on-site supervisor. After communication, the supervisor believed that the game should be replayed, and the referee finally changed the decision. After the sentence was changed, Cibulkova was unhappy and kept arguing with the supervisor. The final point was replayed, and the entire incident caused the game to be interrupted for nearly ten minutes.
After the game, Cibulkova was still upset about the change of decision. "They changed their attention. The referee told me that she couldn't remember what happened after that ball. Did she hit the ball into the net or hit my side?" But I don’t remember. Could it be my fault? It doesn’t matter. Xie Shuwei called the referee after the ball was played. After that, Xie Shuwei complained that they were talking in Chinese or some other language. I don’t know. I think it’s all wrong.”
In Cibulkova’s view, the referee should not change the decision casually: “The correct decision is to maintain the original decision. How many times? I think there should be a rule like this because you don't know what's going to happen. Sometimes they're wrong and sometimes they're right. The sentence cannot be changed. What I am saying now is that it is incorrect for her to change the sentence.”
In an interview with Chinese media, Xie Shuwei reviewed what happened at that time: “The supervisor said at the beginning that we should respect the judgment of the presiding judge, but I don’t. She kept saying that I touched the ball and it should be replayed. This is the fairest thing.” In the interview with
, Xie Shuwei also understood the referee Zhang Juan who made the mistake: “I have played against her a few times before. Actually. Her judgment is quite accurate, because the referee has to deal with many things on the court and pay attention to every corner. It is impossible to do it perfectly. This is not an easy job. I can understand it. Sometimes I also do it on the court. It's normal to be stupid. In the end, the referee gave me a chance to rematch, and I was happy. "
These episodes on the court can be said to be clear to the authorities, because we are sitting in front of the TV through replays. We know exactly what happened in this point, so should tennis also introduce a video replay system like football?
After hearing the reporter's suggestion, Xie Shuwei smiled and replied: "Is it like the World Cup? No one is perfect, and the referee's job is not an easy task. Maybe it would be better to have video replay, because today I am looking for the chief referee, Then the referee came over and it took 5-10 minutes. If there is a video replay, it can be faster and help the referee reduce some wrong decisions. "
