By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday May 12, 2025
Controversy came calling in Rome when the lights suddenly came on during a point in the third game of the third set of Mirra Andreeva’s fourth-round battle with Clara Tauson.
With Andreeva serving at 1-1, 15-0 she was about to crush a drive volley when the lights were switched on. Tauson, who did not appear to be in position to field the ball, claimed that the lights had affected her during the point, and asked for a challenge from the review system.
See full video of the controversial point below:
Umpire Yamila Halle called up to the booth and it was ruled that the lights had indeed come on during the point. She ruled hindrance and ordered the point to be replayed. The call caused Andreeva to plead her case, because she was in complete control of the point when the hindrance occurred. If anybody could have been hindered in this point, it would have been Andreeva, who was about to hit the drive volley.
But Halle played it by the books, and ruled that any hindrance was enough to order the point replayed.
Is that what we want from our umpires? A strict following of the rules, or do we want some more interpretation?
“The lights were turned on before you hit the ball,” Halle told Andreeva, who came to the net to vehemently plead her case. “When you were hitting the ball she was already asking me about the lights.”
“Yeah, because she knew that she would have lost this point,” Andreeva interrupted. “Of course she would have lost this point.
“You know how ridiculous this call is.”
It was a tough ruling for Andreeva to stomach, in a close match where every point mattered. But she soldiered on and went on to win the game anyway, then broke Tauson in the next game
Andreeva went on to take the win, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. She will face Coco Gauff next.