The theme of Australian Open Day 3 was arguing with chair umpires

Australian Open headlines have been mostly focused on the upsets happening in the draw at the moment. Mostly in regards to the Americans in the draw, whose ranks have been absolutely decimated through the first round and a half of the tournament (who’d have thought we’d be this thankful for Ryan Harrison winning matches, am I right?).

So it took until day three of the fortnight for things to pick up a little storyline-wise, moving beyond just the outcome of early matches and everyone having one eye on the rest of the top players to make sure they also don’t flame out far earlier than expected.

On Wednesday, or late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning for viewers in the U.S., things got a little hype for the first time in the year’s first Slam. Maybe it was the heat, maybe there was something in the locker room water, but multiple players decided that they were going to have arguments with the chair umpire. Even better, none of these arguments really had much merit and the chair umpires shut them down pretty effectively.

Let’s take them one at a time, from most benign to most out of control.

Denis Shapovalov (facing Jo Wilfried Tsonga)

Shapovalov (a.k.a. SHAPO) was up 5-2 in the fifth set of a back-and-forth match, and had the opportunity to serve out the match to advance to the third round. But unlike the US Open, when Shapo beat out Tsonga in straight sets, Tsonga came back to prevail in this face off, completing one of the three big comebacks of the day’s action.

Shapo’s tiff with the umpire was the most low key of the day’s play, not even meriting a video tweet from the official Australian Open account. It was your usual bickering over the line call, a brief back and forth before Shapo had fully relinquished his lead and still had some fight in him.

By far the best part was Shapo threatening to go watch the replay after the match to prove he was in the right, and John McEnroe commentating the back-and-forth with as much affection for his own past on the court that he could muster from the announcer’s booth. No word on whether Shapo did end up going to watch the replay, but I’m going to say that’s a “no” because he lost and I wouldn’t be in the mood to watch the replay of one point after a blown lead like that either.

Caroline Wozniacki (facing Jana Fett)

Woz’s comeback topped that of Tsonga’s, as she came back from 5-1 down in the third set by winning six straight games and saving two match points to finish off Jana Fett. Her little snit with the chair umpire actually came in the second set though, after she had already lost the first frame 6-3.

At one-all in the second, Wozniacki hit a ball long and then called a challenge. But not a challenge on the call about her ball going long, but one for the baseline shot before that from Fett. If called properly, challenge rules dictate that requests such as that cannot be acknowledged as they come too late after the shot in question. Many umpires would look the other way and allow the challenge.

Not Richard Haigh though, he was not having it and shut Woz down with a quickness. Her argument was that since she uses a two-handed backhand, she couldn’t lift her hand to signal for a challenge until after her swing was already done. Haigh didn’t fall for that and rightly pointed out that she could have opted for using her voice to simply ask for a challenge.

Woz didn’t have a leg to stand on in this argument, and you can tell that she knows it. She was down a set, desperate for something to go her way, and exasperated that she couldn’t get her game going. Haigh’s complete lack of patience with her flimsy argument is pitch perfect.

Daria Gavrilova (facing Elise Mertens)

This was by far the most shocking and dramatic comeback of the night, and similar to the Shapo-Tsonga match the person that got into it with the umpire was not the victor in this case. Gavrilova was up 5-0 in the first set and looking good, until she completely fell apart and allowed Elise Mertens to win seven straight games on her way to a 7-5, 6-3 win to advance. Mertens saved a whopping nine set points on the way.

During a crucial point in the match, with Gavrilova down 4-2 in the second and serving at 15-all, she challenged the point. The chair umpire did not allow the challenge on the grounds that she had looked to her box for advice on whether to ask for a challenge or not before gesturing for one.

She did NOT take that one well, and proceeded to scream at the umpire, “I am challenging the ball. I said it straight away. I am challenging the ball,” before raising her voice further and shouting, “Yes! I am challenging the call!” When the umpire still maintained her position, Gavrilova continued her berating saying, “There is no freaking way you can’t call that a challenge!” After some more yelling the umpire shuts her down with a curt call of the score as “15-30” and moves the match along.

This was probably the argument with the most unclear line between right and wrong, as it’s hard to tell whether Gavrilova actually did take a clear look towards her box before raising her hand. The ump may have done better by just allowing it since it was such a tricky situation. Daria didn’t drop things even after the loss though, further engaging with the umpire after things were wrapped up on the court.

All in all, a fun day on the courts in Melbourne. And since we all know John McEnroe gets all of his life blood by watching on-court arguments, he’s now fully charged up and ready to call another day of matches.