‘Strange’ happenings occur in Aryna Sabalenka’s latest match in Germany as umpire comes under fire for ‘joke’ call

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Aryna Sabalenka was looking to make a winning start to her grass court season this year.

Sabalenka lost to Coco Gauff in the Roland Garros final in her last match, which was her second loss in a major final to an American player this year.

The world number one was notably devastated after this defeat, with Sabalenka coming under fire for some comments she made after the match.

In a bid to amend those wrongdoings, Sabalenka released a statement and was looking to return to winning ways at her first grass court event of the year in Berlin.

Umpire criticised for stopping Aryna Sabalenka match in Berlin

Sabalenka is one of the Wimbledon favourites this year, and things appeared to be going well for the top seed in Berlin after she won the first set of her match against qualifier Rebeka Masarova.

However, after Masarova complained to the umpire and the supervisor about one side of the court being slippery the match was suspended for the day.

Sabalenka was visibly unhappy with this decision and appeared to sarcastically put her thumb up after the announcement was made.

When discussing this on the Tennis Channel Live podcast, former top 10 player CoCo Vandeweghe and 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick said that they could sympathise with Sabalenka.

Vandeweghe even suggested that she thought Sabalenka should have had more power over this matter than her world number 112 ranked opponent.

While Roddick admitted that he once tried to call a match off before, the former world number one thought that Sabalenka was in the right on this occasion.

“This is where things got a little bit strange,” began Vandeweghe. “Masarova wanted to call the match for wetness. Sabalenka didn’t. She was like I just played two games on that side it’s not slippery at all.

“Usually you go with the world number one and the seeded player, not the lower ranked player but Masarova got her way on that one. I thought it was a joke call.”

Roddick followed up by adding, “Spot on. She just wanted the exit door because of what was happening out there favoured Masarova zero.

“It’s a tough call for Masarova because you are not only protecting yourself p****** Sabalenka off but then it affects the entire draw and tournament.

“They are going to wedge in one more match. Sabalenka is obviously not someone you can hide on a side court, if you start there you have to finish there. There was about an hour of daylight left.

“I did this one time and it was purely because I didn’t want to play another set. Not because it was wet. I was up two sets, the guy came back two sets. And I just walked off the court and there wasn’t much they could do. I think Sabalenka was absolutely right. I was wrong then and Masarova was wrong today.”

Although Roddick admitted he was wrong to do what he did back then, he later revealed that when he came back in the fifth set of the match he suspended he did go on and win it.

When will Aryna Sabalenka and Rebeka Masarova finish their match?

After winning the first set of the match 6-2, Sabalenka will now have to return to the court a day later to finish her second round encounter against Masarova.

However, with the match already having started, Sabalenka and Masarova will not be able to return to court until after the first match on the Steffi Graf Stadion, which is the centre court in Berlin.

Sabalenka and Masarova will follow the match between Diana Shnaider and Marketa Vondrousova, but not before 12:30pm local time.

Some of the other players to compete on the Steffi Graf Stadion on Thursday, June 19, include Roland Garros champion Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Amanda Anisimova.

Anisimova and Magdalena Frech will be the final match of the day, and tournament organisers will be hoping that they can get all of the day’s play done after adding the Sabalenka-Masarova match to the schedule.