A refereeing mistake by Carlos Bernardes mars Flavio Cobolli’s win against Stan Wawrinka in Shanghai

A scoring error by referee Carlos Bernardes contributed to Flavio Cobolli receiving a crucial break of serve in his three-set win over Stan Wawrinka in the second round of the Shanghai Masters 1000.

With the score at 0-1 in the third set, with serves from three-time Grand Slam champion and current world number 236 Wawrinka, he got the first point of the game when Cobolli missed a backhand return wide. Bernardes correctly called the score 15-0 over the Tannoy before speaking into his walkie-talkie and asking for some electrolytes for Cobolli, currently ranked 30th.

Play resumed and Cobolli took the next point with a soft drop shot that Wawrinka could only direct into the net. Bernardes called the score again but said it was 0-30 when it was actually 15-15. Wawrinka then won a point to make it 15-30 before Cobolli won the next two points to make it 15-40 and then hit a break serve for a 2-0 lead.

A rather bizarre situation at the start of Wawrinka-Cobolli’s third set.

Bernardes (probably distracted while asking something) called the result in the 2nd game wrong (0-30 instead of 15-15). Nobody noticed the error. Not even the players.

In the end it was the only break of the game. pic.twitter.com/Hjg2l6mLnM

— Jose Morgado (@josemorgado) October 7, 2024

Instead it should have been 30:40, with Wawrinka facing a break point. It was the first and only break of serve in a match whose previous two sets had gone to tiebreaks, and Cobolli triumphed 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Bernardes, Wawrinka, Cobolli and the entourage of both players completely overlooked the incident without Wawrinka protesting. The athlete has asked the tournament organizers for comment.

Cobolli will play Novak Djokovic in the third round tomorrow, Tuesday October 8th. Djokovic played his own second-round match against Alex Michelsen on Saturday, with heavy rain in Shanghai disrupting the scheduling and evenness of rest and recovery periods between players.

When a similar incident involving Venus Williams occurred at Wimbledon in 2004, then tournament referee Alan Mills told the BBC that no request had been received from Williams at the time and nothing could be done.

In the tiebreak of the second set, Williams’ opponent Karolina Sprem missed a first serve. Williams returned the ball in anticipation of the serve landing, and Sprem hit the ball back past Williams before coming back to hit her second serve. But referee Ted Watts awarded Sprem a point when the 19-year-old Croatian came back to give her a 3-1 lead when the score should have remained 2-1. Neither Williams nor Sprem disputed the situation and Williams lost the tiebreak and the match in a major upset.

According to the ATP rulebook, a scoring error is one of the situations that can be reviewed through Video Review, which is not yet widely used on the ATP Tour and is used in conjunction with Electronic Line Calling (ELC).

This option doesn’t exist at the Shanghai Masters, where linesmen call balls in or out and each player has three challenges per set to verify a call via Hawk-Eye technology.

Bernardes announced earlier this year that 2024 would be his final season. In 1992 he became a full-time referee on the ATP Tour.

(Top photo: Tennis TV)