WATCH: Andrey Rublev climbs on the umpire’s chair stand to use his ‘3-point’ card at the UTS following a heated exchange with another official earlier

Rune beat Rublev in the first semifinal of UTS London's Grand Finals.

WATCH: Andrey Rublev climbs on the umpire’s chair stand to use his ‘3-point’ card at the UTS following a heated exchange with another official earlier

Andrey Rublev (Source: Screengrab/UTS)

The Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) semifinal match that was played between Andrey Rublev and Holger Rune turned out to be extremely controversial, intense, and entertaining. The format of the tournament is already very unique and it was confusion regarding a particular rule that caused all the drama to begin with.

Rune and Rublev played in the first semifinal of the Final 4, while Casper Ruud took on Jack Draper in the second semifinal of UTS London.

Before understanding the reason behind the controversy, it is important to learn the format of the UTS. It is not like a traditional tennis tournament and has four eight-minute-long quarters. The players have to score as many points as they can across the quarters and the player who wins more quarters wins. 

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In the first semi-final, Rune had won the first quarter pretty comfortably, but the second quarter was being fought for valiantly. In fact, the score was 11-11 when the clock ran out. This left Andrey Rublev fuming, as he claimed that he had used his bonus card.

The bonus card means that the player adds three points to his tally if he wins the immediate next point. It caused a massive delay as Rublev went to the umpire, the supervisor, and also tournament founder Patrick Mouratoglou. His opponent, Holger Rune, also approached the chair official. 

Unfortunately, nothing worked out, and the umpire ruled that the score was 11-11. Moreover, the Russian was handed a time violation for refusing to play. Rune ended up winning the second quarter 12-11, and he eventually won the match 3-0. 

However, the third quarter also saw some additional drama. This time, when the score was 11-10 in favor of Holger Rune, Andrey Rublev indicated that he wanted to use the bonus, and he climbed up the umpire’s chair to mockingly emphasize that as a form of protest.

Holger Rune criticizes UTS after heated match with Andrey Rublev 

Rune won the match, but it was not without some controversy of his own. Right after Andrey Rublev’s heated exchange with the officials, it was the Dane who had a lack of understanding regarding the difficult rules of the tournament. 

Holger Rune
Holger Rune (Source: Tennis Majors)
From the rules I read, when it's the deciding point he missed a serve in the net and it's still 11-11. So what's going on? He tried to win it twice.
Holger Rune after the game

Ultimately, it did not cause Rune any trouble, though, as he went on to win the quarter and the match easily. The Russian was also understandably mad at the situation. Before the third quarter, he ended up calling the tournament a ‘shit show’ in a headset interview. 

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