Coco Gauff ex-coach Brad Gilbert was left fuming after a costly error from chair umpire Carlos Bernardes at the 2024 Shanghai Masters changed the course of Stan Wawrinka’s match against Flavio Cobolli. The veteran called the mistake “inexcusable.”
On Monday, October 7, Wawrinka and Cobolli were in an intense battle for a spot in the Shanghai Masters third round against Novak Djokovic. The pair split the first two sets, with the opening tiebreak going Wawrinka’s way 7-6(6) and Cobolli coming out on top in the next tiebreak 7-6(4).
In the deciding set, Cobolli secured the contest’s solitary break but not without controversy. During Wawrinka’s serve in the second game, the young Italian made a return error, granting the veteran a 15-0 lead. However, chair umpire Bernardes, who simultaneously asked the ground staff to provide electrolytes to Cobolli, forgot to update the scoreboard.
Cobolli won the next point to level the score 15-15, but Bernardes made a critical mistake, updating the scoreboard to 0-30 instead. As it turned out, the Italian player won the game with the wrong score, with neither the players nor the ground officials alerting the chair umpire of the blunder. Cobolli eventually came out on top with the score reading 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-3.
Coco Gauff’s ex-coach Brad Gilbert was shocked by the mistake and expressed his frustrations on X.
