Chair umpire Fergus Murphy urged fans at the Canadian Open to vacate their seats on Tuesday when part of the north stand on the Grandstand court broke due to the wind. Tomas Martin Etcheverry was serving to stay in the first set against Sebastian Korda when a pole on the row of seats behind him broke. Both players were then left waiting on court for 10 minutes while the safety of spectators was assessed.
There was drama in Toronto when gusts of wind saw part of the court break during Korda’s opening match against Etcheverry. The pair contested a lengthy game at 2-5 and the Argentine had already saved two set points when a pole that was holding up a piece of canvas above the north stand seating area snapped after a strong gust.
Both men were immediately called back to their seats by the chair official, who then told fans to vacate the area. “Ladies and gentlemen in the north stand, it might be in your interest to exit for the moment and then we’ll check the safety, thanks,” Murphy told the spectators sitting in the vicinity.
There was more concern when the umpire realised that one of the hawkeye cameras had been attached to the pole that broke, meaning it needed to be fixed to call one of the lines on the court. “For the moment we are okay but something is leaking from the roof and falling down,” the supervisor informed Murphy over a walkie-talkie before deciding to keep the players on the court.
“A part of the stand, the north stand, has broken due to the wind,” commentator Pete Odgers told viewers on Prime Video. “The worry which I think Fergus Murphy and yourself Robbie [Koenig, co-commentator] were very quick to point out is that the stand that is broken has got one of the hawkeye cameras on, so the stand is going to need to be fixed.
“And I imagine they’re going to need to line that hawkeye camera up again and so that, I would’ve thought, will take some time.” With Korda and Etcheverry waiting at their respective player benches, Murphy was informed that the priority was the safety of the fans as tournament supervisor Cedric Mourier came to assess things.
World No 32 Korda stood at the net with the umpire, who confirmed that the fans’ safety was the main issue instead of the hawkeye camera. “The camera? That’s only for the centre serve. I don’t think that’s the main concern, I’d say it’s safety,” Murphy explained.
Raonic wasn’t happy with the call as it meant his opponent won the opening set and the supervisor was called to the court to clarify the rule. Meanwhile, Murphy tried to explain the caveat in the rule, saying: “He hit this section of the net. This section as the net doesn’t count as a touch so he wins the point. Only after the singles post, Milos. He touched the net, but this touching of the net doesn’t count.”
Under regular tennis rules, the opponent is awarded the point if a player touches the net during a point. But because the pair were playing a singles match with a doubles net and Tiafoe only touched it outside of the singles lines, it didn’t count. Announcing his decision to the crowd, the umpire added: “Mr Tiafoe ran into the section of the net that does not count, it’s a permanent fixture, therefore he did not touch the net and he hit a winning shot.”
But Raonic managed to turn things around and earned a huge scalp, downing the ninth seed 6-7(12) 7-6(4) 6-3 in front of a home crowd in just his fifth match since 2021.