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The Davis Cup final takes place this Sunday as Spain face Italy but the event was blighted by a hugely controversial incident that happened earlier in the year
The final of the Davis Cup will take place on Sunday with Spain facing Italy for the prestigious title. However, the esteemed competition was marred by controversy earlier in the year when Zizou Bergs and Cristian Garin were involved in an on-court clash.
The drama erupted between Belgium and Chile in the tennis tournament’s first round of qualifying back in February. Belgian star Bergs knocked Garin to the floor as he celebrated a break of serve.
Chilean player Garin then downed tools and refused to continue the match, despite being checked over by a doctor. This resulted in a penalty for Garin with Belgium subsequently awarded the victory.
Garin then slammed the decision not to end the tie. The tense match had looked to be going in Belgium’s favour, especially after Bergs broke serve for a 6-5 lead in the third set.
As Bergs celebrated his break, he made a beeline towards his bench. Finger in the air and riding on a high, the Belgian didn’t seem to be aware of Garin as he made his way around the net post.
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Bergs then jumped and collided with Garin, making contact with him, and sending him to the ground. Garin was quickly checked by an independent doctor.
According to the International Tennis Federation, he was cleared to resume playing, yet refused. Garin was handed three successive time violation penalties – a warning, a point penalty, and then a game penalty.
This gave Belgium a 3-1 overall win. An ITF statement said: “This was a rare, unfortunate and very delicate situation and everyone involved, including the independent doctor, conducted due diligence based on rules and procedures.
“We understand the emotions attached to this unusual incident, but the final decision was made after consideration of all the facts and unique circumstances around it.”
The drama continued as Garin later posted a photo of himself on Instagram seeming to show a black eye. He also criticised the ITF’s call.
“I still can’t believe they disqualified me,” he said in his caption “I can’t believe the umpire wanted to force me to continue the match despite my dizziness after two hours and 40 minutes of high-intensity play.
“I’ve loved this sport for years, I’ve seen millions of matches and I’ve never seen, or even thought of experiencing anything like this in my life. It saddens me to finish in this way, especially after all the effort put in this week and all the work done by the team.
“Thanks to the ITF for not worrying about my health. Thanks to all the Chileans. It’s a difficult moment, but we’ll carry on.”
Bergs was slapped with a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. The umpire for the tie, Carlos Ramos, said the debacle was an “unfortunate accident”.
Speaking about the incident, Bergs said: “It’s truly unintentional. Out of excitement at the break, I jumped in the air and I wanted to go fast to the bench, but I made a completely wrong decision to not wait for the opponent to pass.
“When I saw that he didn’t wait, I wanted to go to the side, but eventually I still hit him with shoulder. Once again, it’s truly unintentional. I was checking on him, I said sorry to him, to the coach, to the team. It’s obviously not what you want, to hurt an opponent, and then it’s up to the umpires to decide what the decision is going to be.
“It feels really bad to end this way. When the match was done, I said to Massu my apologies, because we respect him.”
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