Watson’s Wimbledon ends on a sour note
HEATHER WATSON’S Wimbledon ended in controversy last night as she crashed out of the women’s doubles at the quarter-final stage.
In the fourth game of the third set, with the score finely balanced at one set each and Watson and her partner Tatjana Maria leading 2-1 in games, the 26-year-old Sarnian was heard screaming ‘stupid’ at herself for missing a shot.
However, a line judge standing nearby immediately walked around Court 2 at the All England Club to tell French umpire Kader Noumi that Watson had in fact preceded the word with a seven-letter obscenity beginning with ‘f’.
Despite Watson’s protests and those of the crowd sat near where the incident took place, Noumi issued Watson and Maria with a penalty point, meaning they forfeited the game, taking the score to 2-2.
The pair ultimately lost the deciding set to the No. 3 seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, going down 6-3 6-7 4-6 overall.
‘I asked everybody behind me “What did you hear me say?” and everybody said “Stupid”,’ said Watson afterwards.
‘I just think it’s really pathetic. I didn’t even swear and yet you’ve got people here in all different languages swearing constantly. And it was game point.
‘Nobody heard anything else and I just think it’s really bad. It’s a poor choice from him [the line judge]. I think it’s unfair really. You’re not telling people off when they’re swearing in Czech or Spanish or in whatever. It’s literally like a snitch running to the front of the class going “I heard them say this”. I think it’s so stupid. I can’t even explain.’
Watson is now likely to receive a fine from the All England Club for an ‘audible obscenity’, something she says she will contest.
‘I will because I didn’t say it,’ she added.
‘I don’t know what good it’ll do because it’s his word against mine. They can’t ask the crowd because they will have gone home. So it’s my word against his and I doubt they will go against him.
‘It is frustrating, but I thought we played really well in the match. They’re a real tough pair to play.
‘We had to play a different sort of way, throw in a few more lobs than we’d usually put in. It may not always be pretty but I think we had a really good game plan today and we just missed out by a fraction.’
