Tennis legend Martina Navratilova had some words for Kiara Toth and the official that seemingly allowed Tuesday’s Hungarian Grand Prix match to descend into chaos.
The usually outspoken Navratilova called the incident pathetic and deemed the chair umpire unfit of working matches on clay.
“Pathetic from any angle-umpire is just not fit to call clay court matches and Toth is a nasty sport,” Navratilova replied to former tennis player and current ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert’s tweet asking for the WTA to look into the incident.
Kiara Toth, 20, became tennis’ villain after she erased the mark left by then world No. 45 Zhang Shuai’s cross-court forehand that appeared to land on the road but was called out by the chair umpire.
At first Shuai, the tournament’s second seed, argued the ruling with the umpire, even at one point pleading for the tournament’s supervisor to point out up.
The umpire looked as if it would side with Toth as Shuai questioned her opponent’s motives for erasing the mark on the court, and never got out of her chair to look at where the ball she ruled out had landed, as is the case for many clay court matches when a player questions the umpires call.
Toth, playing in front of her home crowd was reportedly grinning while Shuai, 34, argued the ruling, and celebrated together with her arms within the air with the gang following Shuai’s retirement.
The match was tied 5-5 on the time of the incident.
The Chinese native Shuai has reportedly been coping with mental health issues recently based on tennis journalist José Morgado.
Toth’s tournament run didn’t last long as she was blown out by Ukrainian, Kateryna Baindl, in straight sets on Thursday, losing 6-3, 6-1 within the Round of 16.
After her defeat, Toth released a press release through the tournament’s Facebook page saying she didn’t expect her first WTA predominant drawn win to cause problems.
“I’m extremely sorry for what happened, I respect Zhang Shuai as a player and as an individual. It was never my intention to disrespect, hurt or upset anybody, let alone Zhang Shuai.