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British number one Jack Draper has spoken of his pain at being accused of cheating in Cincinnati last week.
The 22-year-old was involved in a controversial match point against Felix Auger-Aliassime when he appeared to hit the ball into the ground at the net before it looped over, with umpire Greg Allensworth awarding the point to the Briton.
A host of players past and present waded into the debate on social media, with former US Open champion Andy Roddick suggesting Draper would definitely have known it was a foul shot and Stefanos Tsitsipas posting a slow-motion replay of the incident with the caption “Oh my!”, while Novak Djokovic said it was “embarrassing” not to have video replays available.
Draper, who is preparing for the US Open in New York, has found the situation tough.
“I think it’s hard to stay away from it,” he said. “I’ve always valued myself on being honest and a good person.
“Forget the tennis – that is one of the most important things to me in my life. So to obviously see that stuff, and see people talking about you for the first time in a negative way – and questioning your integrity and stuff like that – it’s obviously difficult to see.
“I don’t blame people for doing that. Obviously, on the slow mo, when you watch it from the side, it’s very clear it’s an illegal shot. There’s no doubt about that.
“But obviously, when you’re in the moment and you serve out wide and the guy’s hit a 95mph ball at your feet, you just put a racket down and I didn’t know what happened.
“I was thinking about it four days non-stop. I was really upset by it.
“I think anyone would be lying if they’re saying they’re not hurt by seeing a lot of comments saying, ‘you’re a cheat’, ‘you’re a liar’. And, ‘I would have done this’ and, ‘I would have done that’.
“It’s hard in that situation to know what to do and also it’s good because it’s my first experience of sort of having negativity and having criticism and that’s all part of being a top athlete.
“People questioned my integrity, which is fine, but I was definitely hurt by it.”
