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West Australian tennis star Astra Sharma cost valuable game in bizarre scoring controversy

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Mitchell WoodcockThe West Australian
VideoAussie tennis player robbed by umpire's serious blunder

West Australian tennis star Astra Sharma has been caught up in the middle of a bizarre umpiring controversy which led to a stunning collapse at the WTA 250 event in Colombia.

The world no.95 was at the start of what could have been a thrilling final set against Italy’s Giulia Gatto-Monticone in the round of 32 match when an umpiring blunder cost her a vital game with the decider locked at 1-1.

Gatto-Monticone was serving with Sharma up 30-0 and the Italian lost the third point, but the chair umpire called 30-15 in favour of the Italian instead.

The commentator quickly picked up the mistake saying “I think he’s miscalled the score, it’s 0-40 (for Sharma)”.

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Sharma would lose the next point, with the umpire scoring it as the Australian down 40-15, with Gatto-Monticone hitting long before winning the next point to claim the set in the eyes of the match official despite confusion from the commentator and Sharma.

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“She’s been given this game, Giulia Gatto-Monticone, well, it’s got me doubting myself, but that should not have been the game for the Italian,” he said.

“She leads 2-1 somehow in set number three.”

Sharma would not win another game on her way to a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 loss.

A clearly frustrated Sharma took to Twitter after the match to reveal she knew something was wrong, but felt “helpless” after conversations with the official.

“At 40-15 I thought I had won the game but when I asked the umpire he said no. I thought I miscounted since I do sometimes lose track of the score when I’m so focused, so I usually trust the ump,” she tweeted.

“I was disoriented and confused, trying to remember what points I had won, so I mistakenly thought he was saying it was 40-30 to me, which I thought was OK, I probably miscounted one point. After he called game to my opponent the next point, I knew something was wrong.

“I knew I hadn’t lost that many points. I tried to argue with him and he said that he couldn’t remember how the points went but neither could I, so there’s nothing he could do.

“I knew something was wrong so I asked for video replay, he said there was none. I asked to speak to the lines umpire who had called my opponents misses. He said they had rotated out and he couldn’t get them back. He pressured me saying I cannot delay play if I had no proof.

“I felt really helpless and stupid because it would be their version which corroborated with each other against my weak one, which would at least put the score at 40-30 to my opponent, which was what was inputted by the umpire.”

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