Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Monday January 13, 2025 at 9:40 a.m.
Even at 29 years old and in front of a younger competitor (26 years old), the job continues to come in for the French player.
Arthur Rinderknech did not at all appreciate the nature of his defeat in five sets in the first round of the Australian Open, against Frances Tiafoe, when he had overcome a deficit of two sets to nothing (7-6 , 6-3, 4-6, 6-7, 6-3). According to the 61st player in the world – and sixth French player -, his American opponent took too much time on numerous occasions and he considers that “quite scandalous”: “He knew how to use his experience and the referee saw it well let it happen, it's quite difficult for me to accept. He knew how to take advantage of it, he's been top 10 or 20 for years and he made semi-finals at Grand Slam tournaments, he used that and succeeded. to go a little to draw by sabotaging this fifth set a little, it was a little disjointed.”
“The referee puts pressure on me after three games, when I went over by a second”
The question is always the same on the subject, namely a fairly glaring lack of homogeneity in the management of this timing: “I don't know if it concerns the seeded players, but he clearly had an advantage in this fifth set. Surely I won't lose the match because of that, but surely it would have been fairer if we had been refereed fairly. Maybe I wouldn't have won…” A cold anger that doesn't. therefore not exempt the former national No. 1 (42nd in the world in October 2022) has a certain lucidity, which makes his arguments all the more understandable.
Because beyond a lack of homogeneity depending on the matches, it also exists between the two competitors in the same match: “When the referee puts pressure on me after three games in the first set, when I exceeded by a second when we made interpoints at 1'15'', 1'30'' repeatedly on his service games in the fifth set, there is inconsistency in the refereeing. that's what annoys me a little.” While recalling, once again, that there would have been no fifth set if he had played the first two like the third and fourth, “and we wouldn't talk about all that”.
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