“It’s an abuse of power”: a tennis player disqualified from the Santiago Challenger gives everything to the ATP

One of the postcards of the 2024 edition of the Santiago Challenger was the disqualification of the Argentinian Renzo Olivo (286° ), who, after a charge from the referee, exploded on one of the secondary courts of Club Manquehue after losing a match for hitting the net on a break point. He treated the judge like a criminal and kicked the chair he was directing the match on, eventually causing the supervisor to kick him out of the tournament.

Olivo assumes his behavior was bad, but he clearly points out that the ATP and referees are abusing their power, mainly because no one can punish them for their mistakes. The tennis player insists he didn’t touch the net and that the judge took it “personally.”

“The referee is making the situation worse. The game was calm, the other player (Orlando Luz) was playing very well and I was raising my level. charge a touch at the network where I don’t play, at a breaking point, it must come from someone who has bad intentions, I want to try to be as respectful as possible. If it’s something he hit, it could be the dust because my foot dug in here and it looks like the dust moved forward a little bit. “It’s a very big mistake on their part,” the trans-Andean begins by telling the media. Clay.

Sentence which is then accompanied by another powerful statement, where he questions the little control that exists over the decisions of judges. “I had instant reactions that I cannot justify. I said what I said (“he’s a criminal”) to my coach, not directly to the judge as he pointed out to the supervisor. But this reaction stems from its blatant failure. I take responsibility for my mistake, but I don’t know who takes responsibility for the referees’ mistake,” he said.

This is where the former world number 78 begins to question the attitude of referee Rafael Maia. “He provokes me, he talks to me, in a sarcastic way. He also tells the supervisor that I said (“criminal”) to his face. That’s a lie on your part. If the referee had reacted differently, I wouldn’t have kicked what I kicked. I’m going to ask you not to referee me anymore because something always happens… if a referee gets the better of his emotions, he’s screwed. The player is usually the one who wins the emotions because his adrenaline is high and the referee is the one who has to handle the situation calmly,” he reflected on his relationship with the judge.

Finally, he also spoke about the series of sanctions he received and those that could arrive soon. In addition to being excluded from the singles draw, he will not be able to play doubles and risks a penalty of up to $10,000, or nearly 10 million pesos.

“I found out that night that they had demeaned me twice as much without telling me anything. Now I also have to bear the fine, which seems completely unfair to me. The situation is completely painful because I made a mistake, I paid with default, I paid twice, and on top of that I have to pay a fine. I think so much punishment given to players is an abuse of power by the ATP and the referees. “We don’t have any type of defense,” he said.