Three-time Grand Slam winner defeated after crucial scoring error

Stan Wawrinka. Susan Mullane-Imagn Images

Tennis umpire's crucial scoring error goes unnoticed, helps 22-year-old upset three-time Grand Slam winner

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated Oct 7, 2024 1:53 PM ET

Flavio Cobolli picked up one of the biggest victories of his career on Monday, defeating three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka in the second round of the Shanghai Masters 1000 in three sets, 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-3.

The 22-year-old Italian picked up a crucial break during the second game of the third set, which ended up being the only one of the match. After the second point of the game, however, chair umpire Carlos Bernardes made a critical scoring error that helped Cobolli.

According to a report by James Hansen of The Athletic, the miscue went unnoticed by "Bernardes, Wawrinka, Cobolli, and both players’ entourages," who "completely missed the incident, with no protest from Wawrinka."

‼️ HUGE error from Carlos Bernandes

In the game Cobolli broke Wawrinka, Carlos Bernandes accidentally made a scoring error, giving Cobolli the first point of that game despite him losing it.

Carlos Bernandes probably got distracted by asking electrolytes for Cobolli, as you can… pic.twitter.com/p7TvcYboH6
— Tennis Masterr (@tennismasterr) October 7, 2024

There's no guarantee that Cobolli wouldn't have won the game in question anyway, but the extra assistance certainly didn't hurt.

Per Hansen's report, "the ATP rulebook says a scoring error is one of the situations which can be checked by Video Review, which is not yet widely operational across the ATP Tour and is used in concert with electronic line calling (ELC)."

"It is not present at the Shanghai Masters, where line judges call balls in or out, and each player has three challenges per set with which they can review a call via Hawk-Eye technology," Hansen wrote.

Wawrinka is 39 years old and past his prime, as his trio of singles Grand Slam titles came during the 2010s. The 236th-ranked player in the world won his first major at the 2014 Australian Open and also captured the 2015 French Open and 2016 U.S. Open.

Cobolli is ranked 30th and had his best Grand Slam finishes in all four majors in 2024. Cobolli reached the second round of the French Open and at Wimbledon, while advancing to the third round during the Australian Open and U.S. Open.

He'll play No. 4 Novak Djokovic in the third round in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Bernardes will be retiring at the end of the 2024 season after serving as a full-time umpire on the ATP Tour since 1992.

Victor Barbosa

Victor Barbosa is a passionate follower of MLB, the NBA and NFL, with a deep interest in Boston-area teams. He graduated from Springfield College -- The Birthplace of Basketball -- in 2013 with a degree in Communications-Sports Journalism. Previous bylines include FanSided, Heavy and Syracuse

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