Denied a toilet break, doubles pair stages protest

LONDON: Pablo Cuevas and playing partner Marcel Granollers held a sit-down protest at Wimbledon after they received warnings for threatening to urinate in a can and blasting a ball out of the court when the Uruguayan was refused a toilet break.

The 15th-seeded pair were knocked out of the men’s doubles tournament on Monday when they lost a controversial third round clash 6-3 4-6 6-4 3-6 14-12 to Jonny Marray and Adil Shamasdin.

Britain’s Marray sympathised with his opponents, feeling the situation could have been handled better by umpire Aurelie Tourte, while calling for toilet breaks to be added if matches went into a fifth set.

“You have to take bad calls on the chin at some point. I went to the bathroom twice during the match and obviously the fifth set was a long one,” Marray told British media.

“I think you should be allowed an extra toilet break if it’s five sets. You have to respect the officials regardless of whatever happened in the match. You can have a word or two but they’re trying to do a job and you have to respect that.”

Shamasdin believed that Tourte had crumbled under pressure after making several early errors in the match.

“I don’t think the chair umpire really had the match controlled. She made a few mistakes early on at both ends. We were all on her and she was definitely flustered,” the 34-yearold Canadian said.

“I don’t think she handled it correctly.” ‘NO ROBOTS’ Brazil’s Bruno Soares is the latest player to express his frustration towards the officiating at Wimbledon this year after he was warned for racket abuse in a doubles match on Tuesday. Brazil’s Bruno Soares is the latest player to express his frustration towards the officiating at Wimbledon this year after he was warned for racket abuse in a doubles match on Tuesday.

Soares received the warning from umpire Marijana Veljovic as he and playing partner Jamie Murray, the third seeds, earned a 6-3 7-6 (3) 4-6 4-6 16-14 victory against 16th seeds Mate Pavic and Michael Venus in the third round.

Soares said the warning was unnecessary and that umpires should be realise tempers get frayed during the heat of competition.

“They have got to understand it is competitive, best of five,” the 34-year-old told British media.

“Some days, it is very frustrating with rain delays and things like this and we are not robots. We have feelings and it is not easy sometimes.

“It’s the first thing I do after three hours and you give me a warning. Why is that? Are we in prison or something?”