Monday, May 27, 2013

Sergiy Stakhovsky takes picture of disputed spot, tweets it out after French Open match

Sergiy Stakhovsky — AP 

Athletes use social media for a number of things and you can add "rules question" to that long list thanks to Sergiy Stakhovsky. The 27-year-old Ukrainian disputed a call during his first round match at the French Open, saying the ball was in while the chair umpire called it out. Stakhovsky was so set on the fact that the ball was in that he pulled out his cell phone, took a picture of the spot and eventually tweeted it out after the match.
The picture there clearly shows the mark to the left of the line and it does look like it's very, very close to touching the white, meaning the ball would be in and Stakhovksy was right.
Stakhovksy lost the match 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 to Richard Gasquet but you have to give the guy credit for having the wherewithal to think of snagging his phone and using social media to argue against the chair umpire. The act didn't go unnoticed, as he did land a warning for using his cell phone, and as Beyond the Baseline points out, this isn't the first time Stakhovsky has done this. At the event in Munich he pulled a similar stunt, but it's a little easier to see why he was upset thanks to the French Open clay.
So, your call - after looking at the picture, was it in or out? -

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