“Worse umpiring than juniors,” umpiring howler causes 16-year-old Petra Marčinko’s meltdown on court

“Worse umpiring than juniors,” umpiring howler causes 16-year-old Petra Marčinko’s meltdown on court

Dalma Galfi and Petra Marčinko

Petra Marčinko is a Croatian tennis player who has career-high WTA ranking of 414 in singles, achieved on 4 April 2022, and 941 in doubles, set also on 4 April 2022. Marčinko has won nine singles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit, as well as seven doubles title. She achieved her career-high ITF Junior ranking of No. 1 on 13 December 2021.

At the beginning of 2022, Marčinko won her first junior Grand Slam title at Australian Open, defeating Sofia Costoulas in straight sets.

Marčinko howler brings focus on poor umpiring

Petra Marcinko
Petra Marcinko

At the the 2nd round of the ITF tournament in Oeiras, Portugal, Marčinko was the defeated by the Hungarian Dalma Galfi with 6-0, 4-6, 6-4. Galfi thus became the first player to defeat the 16 year old Marčinko in 2022.

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Against the 23-year-old Galfi, currently the 97th player in the world, Marcinko was close to her first victory against a player who is in the top 100 in the WTA rankings. After losing the first set 0-6 in 20 minutes, Marcinko won the second with a break of 4-4, and had a “break” advantage in the third set to a 4-3 lead. Unfortunately, the more experienced Hungarian won the last three games, two of them on Marčinko’s serve.

The Croatian has been hugely successful in the past few months, achieving 14 triumphs in the junior competition, winning titles at the Orange Bowl and the Australian Open, and 11 more in the senior competition.

However, in Portugal, Marčinko didn’t loose the match due to her errors. The match involved an umpiring howler that ultimately player a big part in the contest. At a point when Marčinko was leading, the Umpire refused to check a mark from Galfi’s serve at 4-4, 40-40 in the 3rd as he thought Petra didn’t stop in time. Marcinko entered in full meltdown and lost 6 of the next 7 points to lose the match.

With this error being termed as “worse umpiring than juniors,” there have been several similar umpiring howlers in recent times. The most recent is the incident in the match between Carlos Alcaraz and Mackenzie McDonald at the Indian Wells, where the umpire had given an out call despite the ball clearly being in, and later refused to check it.

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