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Layhani DQs Klein for calling himself a “stupid person”
3 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
There was a bizarre conclusion to the Sam Groth vs Bryden Klein second round Nottingham duel yesterday, and a most distressful decision was meted out for poor wildcard Klein by chair umpire Mohammed Layhani.
Groth was serving and leading 63 54 but down a break point at 30-40. Groth served and Klein netted his forehand return. As would be expected in such a tense situation of an important match for both Australian veterans struggling to improve their rankings, Klein could not hold in his frustration and chastised his error by calling himself “a stupid person.”
Apparently Layhani had given Klein a warning and a point penalty earlier for his behavior and suddenly Layhani announced that he was giving Klein a game penalty and the match was suddenly over because as Klein trudged over to return serve from the deuce position. Klein erupted in shock and helpless anger as he dropped his racquet and held his hands to his head.
Groth approached the net sheepishly for the handshake while Klein staggered in stunned disbelief. He could not believe Layhani gave a disqualification for merely calling himself a “stupid person.”
Did Layhani rule too harshly on Klein? Would he have been as strict to the rules at an ATP Tour event against a top ten player?
Groth will play fellow Aussie John Patrick Smith today for a Nottingham semifinal slot.
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Dan Markowitz · June 16, 2017 at 1:33 pm
Scoop,
I was going to write about this incident as well as you know we’ve both met Klein and had nice conversations with him. Did you see the video of this incident? Klein netted a backhand at break point, and clearly said, “Stupid person” about himself. But Layhani (and Brad Gilbert tweeted, What’s Layhani umpiring a challenger match for?) called him for the point penalty and thus the match right away.
Apparently, Klein had held up the match earlier for like three minutes complaining about something and Klein as a serial complainer and I guess Layhani wasn’t going to let Klein turn the match into a circus. Maybe if it was Kyrgios he would’ve taken more crap, but what is Klein ranked? Like 200?
Also, it seemed like Groth was even sticking up for Klein. I thought I heard him approach Layhani and say, basically, he shouldn’t lose the match over what he did, but I could be wrong there.
Klein is just a character who probably has the worst reputation on the tour nowadays for being a malcontent. He was at the Binghamton Challenger last year and my friend who watched his match, said Brydan was continually complaining to his girlfriend who travels with him about how he was losing.
Scoop Malinowski · June 16, 2017 at 1:48 pm
Dan; Yes Klein is one of our personal favorites as he is one of those grinding underdogs who won’t give up and is very accessible and approachable and also engaging. Can’t help but support a player like him. But obviously Klein has a reputation as a troublemaker. And I would guess he’s had a fair share of “incidents” in the past. I would suspect he’s on a very short leash and Layhani pulled the trigger quickly because Klein is always a ticking time bomb who could explode at any moment. I would guess Layhani saw it coming. But I would also guess Klein could be a target – and one of those players who the Tour’s officials keep a very very close eye on. It’s too bad because players like Klein are so rare these days and he is a throwback to John McEnroe although of course nowhere near as successful as McEnroe in terms of results or ranking. Let’s just hope this loss does not severely hurt Klein’s career and his ranking or his chances to do some damage during grass court season which is his best shot to spark a career rally.
Bryan · June 24, 2017 at 2:19 pm
“Klein could not hold in his frustration and chastised his error by calling himself “a stupid person.”
Do you think the chair umpire thought Klein was calling Groth stupid? Big difference. In any case the chair umpire was out of bounds with the penalty. There’s a poor trend nowadays where officials are trying to turn players into robots. Stop.